Rumer's song

"Slow"

 

Lullaby

Slowly falling asleep...

The musical rhythm of the lullaby is slow for the kids to sleep
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZi_Yue449c&feature=related

"Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late!"

Alice's adventures in Wonderland

In Lewis Carroll's book Alice's Advetures in Wonderland, there are several passages that underline speed aspects:

"...Alice think it so very much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, ‘Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!’  [...] but when the Rabbit actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on..."

(Chapter 1: down the rabbit-hole)





Also when dancing the "Caucus race" on the beach, the rhythm increases and it becomes faster:

"First it marked out a race-course, in a sort of circle, and then all the party were placed along the course, here and there. There was no ‘One, two, three, and away,’ but they began running when they liked, and left off when they liked, so that it was not easy to know when the race was over. However, when they had been running half an hour or so, and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out ‘The race is over!’ and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, ‘But who has won?’"

(Chapter 3: a Caucus-race and a long tale)

Speed metal

A sub-genre full of rhythm and speed

Speed metal is a sub-genre of heavy metal music that originated in the early 1980s from hardcore punk roots. It is usually described as extremely fast, abrasive and technically demanding music.

Motorhead is often credited as the first bad to invent/play speed metal.

Eric Peterson, guitarist of Testament, says about his band that "a lot of us did a lot of speed". 

 

Here it is an example of a speed metal song by the finnish power metal band of Stratovarius.

Larghissimo / Prestissimo

The speed of music

In music at the beginning of the song and when required, are placed a few words to indicate the speed and the trend at which it should have, especially in classical music.

Most of these words are Italian, because many of the most important composers of the 17th century were Italian, and this period was when tempo indications were first used extensively.

All of these markings are based on a few root words. By adding an -issimo ending the word is amplified, by adding an -ino ending the word is diminished, and by adding an -etto ending the word is endeared.

Nowadays we use BPM (Beats Per Minute), a unit typically used as a measure of tempo in music.

So, in accordance to past and present, we can found these notations on classical music sheet, that are the basic tempo markings:

• Larghissimo — very, very slow (20 bpm and below)
• Lento — very slow (40–60 bpm)
• Largo — very slow (40–60 bpm), like lento
• Larghetto — rather broadly (60–66 bpm)
• Grave — slow and solemn
• Adagio — slow and stately (literally, "at ease") (66–76 bpm)
• Adagietto — rather slow (70–80 bpm)
• Andante — at a walking pace (76–108 bpm)
• Andante Moderato — a bit faster than andante
• Andantino – slightly faster than andante
• Moderato — moderately (101-110 bpm)
• Allegretto — moderately fast (but less so than allegro)
• Allegro moderato — moderately quick (112–124 bpm)
• Allegro — fast, quickly and bright or "march tempo" (120–139 bpm)
• Vivace — lively and fast (˜140 bpm) (quicker than allegro)
• Vivacissimo — very fast and lively
• Allegrissimo — very fast
• Presto — very fast (168–200 bpm)
• Prestissimo — extremely fast (more than 200bpm)

http://www.musicacolta.eu/2009/03/07/agogica-le-indicazioni-del-tempo/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo

In Andante and Variations by W.A. Mozart
we can see the tempo indication above the beginning of the notes
http://www.borgmusic.ca/transcriptions.html

"Gioca Jouer" - Ok guys, now become faster!

Song citation

"Gioca Jouer" - Claudio Cecchetto

"Gioca Jouer! Dormire, salutare, autostop, starnuto, camminare, nuotare, sciare, spray, macho, clacson, campana, ok, baciare, capelli, saluti, saluti, Superman! One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight! Ok, ragazzi, ora più veloce, perché i comandi cambiano ogni due battute, se riuscirete a farlo, d'ora in poi potrete giocare anche solo con la musica, perché sarete dei veri campioni di ?Gioca Jouer!? Dormire, salutare, autostop, starnuto, camminare, nuotare, sciare, spray, macho,clacson, campana, ok, baciare, capelli, saluti, Superman! All right!"

Claudio Cecchetto - "Gioca Jouer" 

http://www.canzoni-mp3.net/c/cecchetto_claudio/canzoni/testo_giocajouer.htm