The Short

362 TEMPO TERMS
note a small gap occurs.’ 681 But their view of these terms was not universally shared.
The tempo significance of ‘moderato’ was particularly subject to disagreement. W. N. James stated that the French
regarded ‘allegretto’ as indicating a tempo slower than ‘moderato’, ‘though the time is certainly faster than the latter
movement’. 682 It is not clear, however, what French source he had in mind, for the Principes élémentaires de musique puts
‘moderato’ in the second slowest of its five groups of tempo terms, that is, slower even than ‘larghetto’ and ‘andante’. 683
That interpretation of the term perhaps reflects Rousseau’s use of the French word modéré as the equivalent of the
Italian ‘adagio’ in his 1768 dictionary. Most authorities did not regard moderato as so slow (though Rousseau's
equivalent perhaps suggests a flowing adagio); but a certain amount of confusion did arise from the fact that some
composers seem to have used ‘moderato’ and ‘allegro moderato’ as two separate tempo terms, while others apparently
regarded them as synonymous. Campagnoli gave the order ‘allegretto’, ‘allegro moderato’, ‘allegro maestoso’,
‘allegro’; 684 Marx gave ‘allegretto’, ‘moderato’, ‘allegro’; 685 Mendel gave ‘andante’, ‘andantino’, ‘moderato’, ‘allegretto’; 686
Dommer gave ‘andante’, ‘moderato’, ‘maestoso’, ‘andantino’, ‘allegretto’. 687 Composers sometimes seem to have
designated a slower tempo with ‘moderato’ and at other times used it as a qualifier to ‘allegro’ for movements that are
well into the allegro range. Schubert's only metronomized moderato, no. 31 in Alfonso und Estrella, is in ? metre with the
marking ? = 96, and its fastest notes are triplet quavers; his allegro moderatos in the same metre (nos.6,16, 28, and 34a)
are marked ? = 100, 138, 132, and 120 respectively. The slower marking for no. 6 may be explained by the continuous
demisemiquaver tremolos in the accompaniment; the others contain semiquavers with some faster notes. However, the
opera also contains one Allegro molto moderato in ? metre(no. 34d) which is slower than no. 31 (? = 84). But the
sample of Schubert's markings is too small to suggest any firm conclusions.
Metronome marks given by other composers indicate the variability of practice. Those of Rossini suggest that he may
sometimes have used ‘moderato’ to indicate a slower pace than would have been implied by ‘allegro moderato’, but he
was far from consistent. Weber's employment of ‘moderato’ and ‘allegro moderato’ in Euryanthe suggests that for him
they shared the same tempo region; the Moderato assai no. 7 and the Allegro moderato no. 23d, for instance, both in ?
metre, have an identical metronome mark (? = 104) and similar note values. Spohr's metronome marks, too, reveal no
obvious distinction
681 Fröhlich, Musikschule, iii. 47.
682 The Flutist's Catechism, 42.
683 Gossec et al., Principes, 43.
684 Nouvelle méthode, v. 10.
685 In Schilling, EncyclopÄdie, art. ‘Tempo’.
686 Mendel and Reissmann, Musikalisches Conversations-Lexikon, art. ‘Tempo’.
687 Musikalisches Lexicon, art. ‘Tempobezeichnungen’.