I have a worry about this definition and use thing. Our band has a book of music, most of which is dance music (the rest is party pieces for interludes). I want to spell out the tempo in "steps per minute" but for a 4/4 step-hop hornpipe this is 1/4 (for a step or a hop), for a 4/4 reel this is 2/4 (2 steps per bar), for a waltz it's probably 3/4 since although waltzes are written in 3/4 they really are just in 1, for a jig it's probably 3/8 (a walking step or a complete hop-step making a skip), so how do I say (I'll do it sort of COBOL style!) DEFINE Walking AS 1/4=120 FOR REEL OR 3/8=120 FOR JIG and so on.
(And writing Walking in Italian as Andante does not help - incidentally what's the classical music/italian word for "skipping" which would be about 3/8=105 or "skipping con moto" which would be about 3/8=95 to allow more time in the air?). Laurie To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
