Reference variable in include file?

[Tom Dickson]

I have a \score block at the end of each file that is basically the same, so I 
want to move it to an \include.

However, the one line that can change is the \tempo 4 = 72 line.

I tried to define variables in the calling file:

noteName = 4
noteTempo = 72

but

\tempo \noteName = \noteTempo 

did not do what I was expecting. It does look like

noteTempo = {\tempo 4 = 72}

and then simply \noteTempo in the include file works.

Is there better way?