Animato

What it means

Animato means “animated” and calls for a spirited, lively performance. The marking concerns in the first place the expression; but it also affects the tempo, because an animated performance is as a rule somewhat brisker.

The most important distinction concerns animando. The ending -ato denotes a state, the ending -ando a process: animato calls for playing the section animated from the outset, animando, by contrast, for becoming gradually more animated. Whoever equates the two takes from an intensification its direction.

Related is con anima, “with soul”, which means the inner engagement more than the outward motion — even though the two phrases are frequently understood similarly.

In the notation

The word stands in italics above the staff, either alone at the point from which it holds, or as an addition to a tempo word, for instance in Allegro animato. It works until a new marking. As a movement heading it can become the name of the movement.

Musical use

The designation is used in sections that are to gain liveliness against their surroundings: in second themes, in developments, in codas. In song and opera literature it stands over places where the text gains motion. As an addition to a tempo word it shifts its character perceptibly forward.

Animato often stands at the beginning of a new section meant to become livelier than the preceding one, and can be joined with a slight picking-up of the tempo. But it calls above all for more energy in the expression, not necessarily a new tempo. Related markings are con anima and con moto.

Performance practice

Seek the animation first in the articulation and the sound, not in the tempo alone — a merely faster performance does not seem livelier. Keep the pulse stable in doing so, or animation becomes a pressing. Work out the metric emphases. And check the ending of the word before you decide whether to play evenly animated or to become gradually more animated.