Tempo is the speed of the music. Beat is the frequency with which the musician makes a stress. That is what 'bars' are all about. So say the music was 'in four' that means there is a beat of four regular pulses throughout the music, each one is stressed slightly and the first one of each four is stressed a lot.
That could obviously happen at any tempo the musician considers appropriate.
In classical music at least it should always be possible to hear the beat and to hear when the start of every bar is - because it gives the whole thing structure. If you can't hear it then the musician isn't doing their job. Or something clever is going on. Or something modern ;)
So beat obviously follows tempo but not vice-versa.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2005-07-10 06:49 am (UTC)Dah-dah-dah-dah Dah-dah-dah-dah Dah-dah-dah-dah Dah-dah-dah-dah
That could obviously happen at any tempo the musician considers appropriate.
In classical music at least it should always be possible to hear the beat and to hear when the start of every bar is - because it gives the whole thing structure. If you can't hear it then the musician isn't doing their job. Or something clever is going on. Or something modern ;)
So beat obviously follows tempo but not vice-versa.