Loading…
Loading…
Slightly faster than Andante (though historically debated — some composers used it to mean slightly slower).
Printed above the staff as a movement or section heading, alone or in combinations such as Andantino quasi Allegretto or Lento quasi Andantino. It holds until the next tempo word. Since writers have disagreed whether it is faster or slower than Andante, the surrounding words, the time signature and any metronome mark settle the speed on the page.
Andantino is ambiguous: writers around 1800 disagreed whether it meant a little faster or a little slower than Andante, and Beethoven once asked a publisher to tell him which was meant. Most performers now take it as slightly faster. If the difference matters, add a metronome mark. It suits light, graceful music that needs a little more lilt than Andante.
Chopin, Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38, piano: “Andantino” heads the ballade over a pp opening, later broken by a “Presto con fuoco” at ff.
Andantino is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
Browse the full dictionary →