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. The term was introduced by Giovanni Battista Martini in 1775 in the second volume of his counterpoint treatise Esemplare, ossia Saggio fondamentale pratico di contrappunto, as part of a set of terms that distinguish fugue subjects by their length. By this measure a subject of six bars in 4/4 counts as an andamento.

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, 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. An often-cited example is the subject of the Amen fugue at the end of Handel’s Messiah.

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.

Martini distinguishes from the andamento the soggetto, a subject of average length, and the attacco, a short motif that serves as a point of imitation. The distinction thus describes not different kinds of fugue but the shape of the subject.

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.