Largo Tempo in BPM
Largo is commonly given as 40 to 60 BPM, the slowest of the standard tempo markings. The word itself means broad rather than merely slow.
Timing is scheduled on the Web Audio clock, so the beat stays steady even while the page is busy. Tap the tempo button in time with a song to set the BPM by ear. Keyboard: space starts and stops, up and down arrows change the tempo by 1 (hold shift for 10), escape stops.
The metronome above starts at 50 BPM, the middle of the Largo range. Drag the tempo anywhere between 40 and 60 to hear the whole range.
What Largo means
Largo translates as broad, wide. Largo asks for breadth, not just a low number. The distinction matters in performance: a piece marked Largo is meant to feel spacious and unhurried, which is a different instruction from Adagio, where the emphasis is on ease rather than width. Two performers can both play at 52 BPM and only one of them sounds Largo.
At this speed the beat is slow enough that counting subdivisions becomes the practical problem. Many players set the metronome to twice the marked tempo and count eighth notes rather than quarters, because the gap between clicks at 44 BPM is long enough for the pulse to drift in your head between them.
Why the BPM range is a convention, not a measurement
This is the part most tempo tables leave out. Italian tempo words were in general use for about a century before Maelzel's metronome made a beats-per-minute number practical at all, and the composers who wrote them never defined them numerically. Every published range, including the 40 to 60BPM given here, is somebody's later reconstruction, and different sources disagree by ten or twenty beats per minute at the edges.
Treat the number as a region and the word as the instruction. On a site that computes frequencies to two decimals it is worth being explicit about which figures are exact and which are conventional: the frequencies are exact, these ranges are not.
Where Largo sits against the other markings
| Marking | Means | Commonly quoted BPM |
|---|---|---|
| Largo | broad, wide | 40 to 60 |
| Adagio | at ease, comfortable | 66 to 76 |
| Andante | walking | 76 to 108 |
| Moderato | moderate | 108 to 120 |
| Allegro | cheerful, lively | 120 to 168 |
| Vivace | lively, vivacious | 168 to 176 |
| Presto | quick | 168 to 200 |
| Prestissimo | as quick as possible | 200 to 240 |
Exact tempos inside the Largo range
Each of these opens the metronome already running at that tempo, with its own notes on what the speed is used for.
Frequently asked questions
How many BPM is Largo?
Commonly 40 to 60 BPM. Published tables disagree at the edges, with some giving 40 to 66 and others stopping at 54, because the word was in use long before the metronome existed and was never defined numerically.
What is the difference between Largo and Adagio?
Largo means broad and Adagio means at ease. Largo is normally placed slightly slower than Adagio in range tables, but the more useful difference is the character asked for: width and space against calm and comfort.
Other tempo markings
More timing tools
Frequencies on this page are computed at build time from twelve tone equal temperament with A4 = 440 Hz, using the twelfth root of two (about 1.059463) per semitone. Nothing is typed in by hand. See the full method and sources. Maintained by FusionStudios. Last reviewed: .