Andamento

What it means

Andamento denotes, in the older theory of the fugue, a comparatively long, animated fugue subject that extends over several bars. The word is derived from the Italian and points to walking, to even motion. In the Italian teaching tradition of the eighteenth century it was placed in a series with other terms that distinguished fugue subjects by their length and nature; the terminology, however, is not uniform in the sources.

Musical use

The distinction by length has a practical sense. A short, pithy subject can easily be brought into stretto — that is, stacked several times in close succession — and suits a compressed texture. A long subject offers more melodic content but calls for more room, and every entry carries more weight. The construction of a fugue follows from this: with long subjects the exposition is correspondingly extended, the episodes often turn out shorter, and strettos are harder to bring about.

Longer fugue subjects frequently consist of a pithy head and a spinning-on continuation in even motion. The head makes the subject recognisable, the continuation makes the join to the next voice.

The term is to be distinguished from the subject as the general name for the fugue theme: every andamento is a subject, but not every subject an andamento.

Besides andamento the Italian theory of the fugue knows the designations soggetto for a short, tersely framed subject and attacco for a very short motif, often used in stretto. The distinction thus describes not different kinds of fugue but the shape of the subject. Because of its length an andamento is less suited to dense strettos and is worked rather in sequences and episodes.

Performance practice

With long fugue subjects it helps to profile the head clearly and to lead the continuation on as a line, instead of weighting every note equally — so the entry stays recognisable without the subject becoming heavy. Mark every subject entry in the score and check where it ends; with long subjects this is not always obvious.