The Short

364 TEMPO TERMS
Maestoso
Löhlein considered that maestoso required
a firm tone, that is well sustained and well articulated. It is mostly expressed in figures where the first note is long
and the second short, or, to put it more clearly: where after the first, third, fifth note, etc. there are dots. The former
overtures always began with such movements. Nowadays marches, in particular, but also from time to time other
musical pieces, still have these figures. 688
And Reichardt appears to have regarded ‘maestoso’ as mainly appropriate to slow pieces; he observed that it indicated
‘that the longer bowstrokes should receive a stronger, more expressive accent, and in these cases the notes before rests,
rather than being taken off short, should only come away gradually’. 689
The association of the term ‘maestoso’ with music of a majestic, processional character meant that it was preeminently
employed in common time, though it is occasionally found in other metres. It occurs most frequently as a
qualification to ‘andante’ and ‘allegro’, but, especially in the nineteenth century, is quite often found as a term on its
own. Its effect on the tempo of an allegro seems always to be a moderating one; its effect on that of an andante,
however, is more variable and is probably linked to some extent with a composer's feeling about the tempo area
appropriate to that term. Mozart almost certainly intended andante maestoso to be slower than his normal andante. 690
Beethoven gave metronome marks to only two tempo directions that include the term ‘maestoso’, both in the Ninth
Symphony. The 3/4 Maestoso has quite a stately pulse at ? = 60, but contains many demisemiquavers. The Andante
maestoso in 3/2, which is marked ? = 72, has quavers as its fastest notes and seems similar to the 3/4 Andante
moderato (? = 63, with semiquaver movement); but the Andante maestoso has a greater feeling of speed at that tempo,
and, taking the metre into account, it seems clear that Beethoven saw this tempo marking as the faster of the two.
Some composers, probably including Beethoven, evidently felt that ‘maestoso’ itself occupied a particular niche in the
tempo hierarchy and that the effect of its attachment to another term depended on whether the tempo indicated by the
main term were slower or faster than the tempo area appropriate to ‘maestoso’ alone. For Spontini it apparently
occupied a distinct place between ‘andante’ and ‘allegro’. His metronome marks indicate that he regarded ‘andante
maestoso’ as signifying a faster tempo than ‘andante’, while he, like other composers, regarded ‘maestoso’ or ‘allegro
maestoso’, as indicating a quite distinctly slower tempo than ‘allegro’. For Spohr, on the other hand,
688
Anweisung zum Violinspielen, 106.
689
Ueber die Pflichten :, 25–6.
690
Marty, The Tempo Indications of Mozart, 84 ff. Although Marty's arguments are largely subjective, his instinct seems very plausible in this case.