The Short

354 TEMPO TERMS
In Rossini's music, to judge by the metronome marks, ‘andante’ and ‘andantino’ seem to signify little obvious
difference in speed, though in many instances sections marked ‘andantino’ have a very slightly slower pulse.However,
as far as such a restricted sample can show, the treatment of the two terms appears closely related to the metre with
which they are coupled: in ? the pulse in andantino is equivalent to a slow andante, but there are faster-moving notes in
the andantino sections; in the four operas with metronome marks mentioned above (Le Siège de Corinthe, Le Comte Ory,
MoÏse, and Guillaume Tell), there are five 2/4 andantes, all of which have a quaver pulse between 56 and 84, while a
single andantino has a crotchet pulse of 60 but fewer fast-moving notes. In 6/8, 3/8, and 3/4 there is no obvious
difference in tempo between the two terms, but it may be significant that the majority of andantinos are in these metres
while a considerably greater proportion of andantes are in ? and 2/4. Spontini certainly seems to have regarded
‘andantino’ as implying a tempo on the slow side of that implied by ‘andante’, but in Nurmahal, for instance, there is no
obvious difference of tempo between the Andantino malinconico no. 16 (? = 50), the Andantino sostenuto no. 27 (? =
48), the Andante poco sostenuto no. 18 (? = 50), and the Andante un poco sostenuto no. 21 (? = 48), all of which are
in ? metre and have similar note values.
It seems possible that the notion of‘andantino’ as indicating a gentler (i.e. somewhat more leisurely) style of
performance than ‘andante’ remained stronger in Italy than elsewhere. Verdi may have employed it in this sense. In Il
trovatore, for instance, there are a 3/8 Andante with the metronome mark ♯ = 76 (no. 3) and a 3/8 Andantino with
similar note values and melodic profile marked ♯ = 72 (no. 14). On the other hand, in Rigoletto there is a 3/8
Andantino(no. 5), also with semiquavers, that is marked ♯ = 92. For a faster andante Verdi often used ‘andante mosso’;
for example, the 3/8 Andante mosso in no. 10 is marked ♯ = 120, thus occupying a place almost exactly half-way
between his andante and allegretto (all three 3/8 allegrettos in Il trovatore(in nos. 4, 5, and 14) are marked ?. = 60).
During the course of the nineteenth century, however, as a slower notion of ‘andante’ increasingly gained ground in
Germany and France, ‘andantino’ was more often defined as faster. Fétis and Ignaz Moscheles considered that
‘andantino’ should strictly mean a slower tempo than ‘andante’, but that in common usage at that time it meant faster,
adding, with dubious justification: ‘for which we have the authority of Mozart and the practice of modern
composers’. 671 In his Handlexikon der Tonkunst (1857) Gollmick resolved the indecision in his earlier book by coming
down firmly on the side of‘andantino’ meaning a faster tempo than ‘andante’, stating that it meant ‘less andante,
somewhat faster, the
671 Méthode des méthodes de piano (Paris, [c.1840]), trans, as Complete System of Instruction for the Piano Forte (London, [1841]), 5.