The Short

TEMPO TERMS 355
fastest grade of the slow tempos and bordering on the allegretto’. 672 Because of its ambiguity, Beethoven rarely used the
term ‘andantino’. In a letter to Thomson about Scottish songs, he commented on the disagreement saying: ‘Andantino
sometimes approaches an Allegro and sometimes, on the other hand, is played like Adagio’. 673 But when he did use the
term, as in many of the songs he arranged for Thomson, he clearly favoured the faster meaning, as his employment of
such terms as ‘andantino più tosto allegretto’ testifies. Spohr, in line with the predominant German practice, appears to
have regarded ‘andantino’ as indicating a somewhat more active tempo than ‘andante’, though both terms seem to
imply roughly the same tempo area in his music. This is illustrated by comparison of three 6/8 numbers in his opera
Jessonda, the andantinos in nos. 7 and 10 (?. = 58 and ? = 50) and the Andante no. 20 (?. = 52); nos.7 and 20 have
similar note values, though the music is slightly more active in no. 7, while no. 10 has considerably more semiquaver
movement than the other two. Interesting light on Spohr's notion of the meaning of ‘andante’ and ‘andantino’ is shed
by three holographs of the song ‘Nachgefühl’: the original of 1819 was marked ‘Moderato’, while a copy written for an
album in 1834 is headed ‘Andante’ and another, published as a facsimile in 1839 has the direction ‘Andantino’. A
further peculiarity of Spohr's use of these tempo terms is that his andantinos, like his larghettos and like Rossini's
andantinos, occur mainly in 6/8 with a few in 3/4, 3/8, and 9/8; none of Spohr's andantinos are in ?, whereas his use
of the term ‘andante’ occurs principally in ? and 3/4.
Berlioz, too, favoured ‘andantino’ for certain metres and ‘andante’ for others; almost all occurrences of the former are
in 3/4 and 6/8, while ‘andante’ is frequently found in ?. The tempo range for his andantinos is considerable and does
not show any clear preference for a faster or slower conception than for movements marked ‘andante’. In fact, his use
of the term seems to bear out Beethoven's observation of several decades earlier. In 3/4 metre Berlioz ranges
from Andantino quasi allegretto (? = 108) in the romance ‘Le Matin’ of around 1850 (H. 125) to Andantino quasi
adagio (? = 50) in the Te Deum of 1848–9 (H.118). When he revised the ballade ‘La morte d'Ophélie’ (H. 92a) in 1848
(H. 92b) he altered the tempo term from ‘Andante con moto quasi allegretto’ to ‘Andantino con moto quasi allegretto’
(6/8), keeping the same metronome mark of ?. = 63. This suggests that for Berlioz, as probably for other composers
at that time, the difference in the significance of‘andantino’ and ‘andante’ was rather one of character than tempo;
probably the diminutive suggested something more lightweight. This was certainly the interpretation proposed by
Andersch in 1829. 674
Schubert, who, unlike Beethoven, frequently used the tempo direction ‘andantino’, undoubtedly intended it to indicate
a tempo considerably faster
672 Art.‘Andante’.
673 Letter of 19 Feb. 1813, in Anderson, The Letters of Beethoven, 406.
674 Musikalisches Wörterbuch, art. ‘Andante’.