The Short

352 TEMPO TERMS
slower than ‘andante’, others as faster, and, as is the case with the slower tempo terms, some appear to have made less
a distinction of speed than of character.The problem hinged on the fact that ‘andante’ was ranked with neither the slow
nor the fast tempo terms, and so, in contrast to ‘largo—larghetto’ and ‘allegro—allegretto’, it was unclear which way
the diminutive ‘andantino’ should modify it. Those who considered ‘andante’ to signify a rather spacious tempo tended
to see ‘andantino’ as indicating a faster one, and those who regarded it as signifying a brisker tempo were inclined to
take the opposite view.
The stylistic connotations of ‘andante’, as clear, even, distinct, and well separated, were often independent of any
explicit notion of tempo until well into the middle of the eighteenth century; Quantz, for instance, observed that if
instead of sustaining the dotted notes in an adagio one were to replace the dot with a rest the adagio would be
‘transformed into an andante’. 659 These stylistic considerations remained an important aspect of the meaning of
‘andante’ throughout the eighteenth century, but from at least the middle of the century onwards it was also generally
accepted that it indicated a tempo somewhere between ‘adagio’ and ‘allegretto’. Leopold Mozart stated that its
meaning,gehend in German (which can be translated into English as ‘going’ or, more specifically, ‘walking’),
demonstrates ‘that the piece must be allowed to take its own natural course; especially if Un poco allegretto be added’, 660
suggesting that he saw it as tending rather towards a brisk stride than a leisurely stroll. Fifty years later Knecht defined
‘andante’ as ‘going [walking] or pace by pace (that is to say all notes should be neatly, equally and clearly well-separated
from each other)’ and ‘andantino’ as ‘going [walking] somewhat’. But, recognizing that his view was not universally
shared, he continued: ‘Some composers are of the opinion that andantino must go somewhat faster than andante; but
since the former is the diminutive of the latter, the contrary is true: andantino relates to andante like allegretto to
allegro. Despite this, however, many composers take it in the first sense as going somewhat faster than andante.’ 661 John
Holden's slightly earlier definition shows how two musicians, even when they agreed about the meaning of the word
‘andante’ itself, could interpret the effect of the diminutive element quite differently. Holden explained: ‘Andante,
walking. A regular, distinct and moderate movement. The diminutive Andantino is somewhat quicker than Andante, as
if it were to be measured by a little mincing step.’ 662
It seems probable that during the eighteenth century, in Germany and Italy at any rate, the faster interpretation
of‘andante’ and the slower one of‘andantino’ was the more widespread. C. D. F. Schubart, for instance, referred to
andante as a tempo that ‘kisses the borderline of Allegro’. 663 And it has been persuasively
659 Versuch, XVII, 2, § 13.
660
Ibid., I, 3, §27.
661
Katechismus, 39.
662
Essay, 41.
663
Ideen, 360.