Tiny spirals rise over volcano, climbing quite slowly (7)
I believe the answer is:
andante
'tiny spirals rise' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't understand how they can define each other.
'over volcano climbing quite slowly' is the wordplay.
'over' says to put letters next to each other.
'volcano' becomes 'etna' (Etna is an example).
'climbing' is a reversal indicator (in a down clue, letters climb up).
'quite slowly' becomes 'and' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'etna' reversed gives 'ante'.
'ante' after 'and' is 'ANDANTE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for andante that I've seen before include "Moderately slow musical passage" , "(Of tempo) moderately slow" , "moving unhurriedly" , "tad slow for 9 [FLAUTIST] ?" , "(Musically) at a moderate pace" .)