Vivace Tempo in BPM
Vivace is commonly given as 168 to 176 BPM, above Allegro and just below Presto. The word means lively in the sense of vivid.
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 172 BPM, the middle of the Vivace range. Drag the tempo anywhere between 168 and 176 to hear the whole range.
What Vivace means
Vivace translates as lively, vivacious. Vivace is a narrow band in the range tables, which reflects how it is actually used: more often as a character marking attached to another word, as in Allegro vivace, than as a tempo on its own. Read as a modifier it means take the Allegro and give it energy.
At around 170 BPM the individual beat is short enough that most listeners stop hearing quarter notes as the pulse and start feeling the bar instead. That perceptual shift, rather than any number, is what separates the fast markings from the moderate ones.
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 168 to 176BPM 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 Vivace 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 Vivace 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 Vivace?
Commonly 168 to 176 BPM. The range overlaps heavily with Presto in most tables, and the two are more reliably separated by character than by number.
Is Vivace faster than Allegro?
Yes, in the usual range tables Vivace begins where Allegro ends, around 168 BPM. As a qualifier in Allegro vivace it asks for extra energy rather than a specific higher tempo.
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: .