Andamento is an Italian

musical term A variety of musical terms are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special mus ...

used to refer to a fugue subject of above-average length.

Definition

The term was coined by G.B. Martini in the second volume of his work ''Esemplare, ossia Saggio fondamentale pratico di contrappunto'' (1775), which also featured the terms ''

attacco Attacco, in music, indicates a short phrase, treated as a point of imitation; and employed, either as the subject of a fugue, as a subordinate element introduced for the purpose of increasing the interest of its development, as a leading feature ...

'' and ''soggetto'' to refer to short and average-length fugue themes, respectively. In Martini's definition, a fugue theme of six 4/4 bars could be described as an andamento. The term found limited use outside of

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, but has been discussed by scholars.

Examples

* The 'Amen' fugue in Handel's ''

Messiah In Abrahamic religions, a messiah or messias (; , ; , ; ) is a saviour or liberator of a group of people. The concepts of '' mashiach'', messianism, and of a Messianic Age originated in Judaism, and in the Hebrew Bible, in which a ''mashiach ...

''. * The first fugue subject of

Ronald Stevenson Ronald James Stevenson (6 March 1928 – 28 March 2015) was a Scottish composer, pianist, and writer about music. Biography The son of a Scottish father and Welsh mother, Stevenson was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, in 1928. He studied at the ...

's Passacaglia on DSCH.

References

{{music-theory-stub Musical terminology