Hi

I've come across the words piu andante as a performance direction, and don't understand what the composer means. Piu means "more", and andante means "at a walking speed", but simply putting the two together "more at a walking speed" doesn't make sense? I'm obviously being a bit thick here, but would appreciate any advice please.

Many thanks,

Amber

I think that piu andante should mean playing slower.

Hi Amber,

Andante is often translated in a musical context as walking, and "walking speed" can be a useful rough equivalent.

However in Italian, (as I understand it; I'm not an Italian expert) the verb andare literally means "to go", so it means "going" or moving along. So if you think of it as "more going" it might indicate a little more movement.

This would be my educated guess - any Italian speakers like to correct or add to this ??

Maggie

I'm not an Italian expert either but according to Grove it is 'present participle of andare, ‘to walk’', although Grove will obviously give a musical context; google translates 'andare' as 'to go' as Maggie states. I would guess that what one would do actually depends on context: if it follows a passage marked allegro then one would go slower; following a passage marked largo one would go faster. Apparently it was originally used as a direction about the manner in which the music should be played rather than an indication of tempo.

If this is in the context of a theory exam (they seem to put in odd things like this from time to time...) I suspect that the literal translation you gave would be an acceptable answer.

Yes, as Another Pianist says, it would depend what the speed of the previous passage was.

Although we tend to interpret Andante as being perhaps a bit slower than Moderato, I once had an Italian speaking pupil and when I asked her she reckoned Andante was in fact fairly fast!

-

Many thanks everyone for your advice

It makes sense now. It was at the beginning of a piece, which confused me. However when I checked, the piece was an abstract from a longer piece (Mozart's Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail), so obviously it related to what had gone before. How is it that something so confusing can suddenly become so blindingly obvious once it's explained

But let's face it, what is "walking speed" anyway? There's a huge difference between just going to post a letter and going to catch a bus that's due in two minutes time!

One of the things I love about music is having the flexibility to interpret and express myself within the music, yet at the same time I want to be true to the composer and deliver what they have written. So it's getting that balance right that's the tricky bit. That and the fact I wish I was far more accomplished than I am, but I guess I'll always feel like that!

Many thanks again.

The AB Guide to Music Theory says:

"andante (I) at walking pace ... indicating a medium speed ... piu andante and molto andante are somewhat slower"

That's interesting - thank you.

So logic doesn't necessarily apply !

At least we may have reassured you Amber that you weren't being thick at all - since opinions varied on this one !!

Maggie