Andante maestoso

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff as a heading, often for a new section within a movement — a hymn-like or ceremonial episode — and in force until the next tempo word. Older German prints sometimes spell it maëstoso, the diaeresis marking separate vowels.

How Composers Use It

A walking pace with ceremonial weight: broad, full-toned, unhurried, every beat given its due. It suits chorales, processional themes and grand slow tunes, the kind an orchestra plays with full bows and sustained brass; Holst uses it for the broad tune at the centre of “Jupiter” in The Planets. Do not let maestoso drag the Andante into a crawl: the grandeur comes from tone, not from slowness.

Example

Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, fourth movement: “Andante maestoso.” heads the choral “Seid umschlungen, Millionen!” section.

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