ANDANTE over the years was the most malleable, the most changeable of musical directions. It might almost seem to have meant at different times all things to all men. Literally it signified simply "going." For a while, in the eighteenth century, it meant "play straightforwardly" - that is, the piece was to be played cleanly in very strict time, and without any of the fancy French stylistic manner of dotted rhythms (the French liked to play the rhythms unevenly, with a pronounced lilt). Handel's andantes in the 1730s and 1740s seem to have been attached most often to pieces which needed a relatively brisk tempo. When he wanted a slower andante, he wrote "Andante larghetto." When he wished the andante faster than his usual relatively quick interpretation of the term, he even noted "Andante allegro" (for example, in Medoro's aria, Vorrei poetrii amar, at the opening of the third act of Orlando). For Handel andante meant moving forward with a sense of pace and no lingering.

Mozart's employment of Andante was more moderate than Handel's but it was faster than is sometimes thought today. When his sister mentioned an Adagio in one of his concertos, he corrected her firmly, remarking that all of his recent concertos had andantes, not adagios (for a while in the middle of the eighteenth century, adagio meant not only "slow," but was an invitation to the performer to add many ornaments). Andante was a favorite designation of Mozart, used many hundreds of times.

Musically, things slowed down in the nineteenth century. Symphonies and operas and quartets became longer; even longer phrases became the rule. Andante, too, slowed, and the tempo mark now signified something more ruminative, more reflective. The real puzzle - and this started in the late eighteenth century - is what is meant by molto andante (very andante) or più andante (more andante): was "more andante" faster or slower than "andante?" Beethoven was not sure and consulted others. Finally he decided that more andante was faster, but then he had to write out an explanation. He was explicit in the variation finale of the Sonata in E Major Op. 109 : the fourth variation is marked "a little but less andante, that is, a little bit more adagio than the theme."

In my experience, it is one of the most difficult tempos to set; even in the nineteenth century it implies that the listener should not feel the tempo was either fast or slow, but nevertheless with a pace that does not have the bland and dawdling impression of a moderato. Andante generally demands that the music look forward, and move without stumbling or impediment. It neither lingers nor hurries.

Andante is basically a tempo today which signifies a free movement, continuously progressive, unconstrained and unforced. We expect the web site andante.com will proceed with this beautiful tempo as a model.

Charles Rosen