Flowing onward
Flowing, moving on.
What it means
Fortgehend (“moving on”) belongs to the German tempo and performance words that have stood alongside the Italian designations since the eighteenth century. What is meant is a tempo that goes on and does not linger: the music should flow, the phrases should pass into one another without the pulse stalling. No number can be given for it; the word describes a kind of motion, not a measure.
In substance it corresponds to the Italian con moto or scorrevole, without a fixed equation being usual. Related is the German hingehend, which rather means a moderate striding, whereas fortgehend stresses the continuing of the motion. Such German markings are often not strictly defined — they are character words that the composer sets as an explanation of his intention, not as a prescription with a fixed value.
In the notation
The word stands above the first staff of a movement or section, in German-language editions often in place of an Italian tempo word, sometimes also beside it. Where composers designate consistently in German, a whole series of such words is found, whose meaning follows from the context of the respective edition.
Musical use
The marking is used in music that is not to have a sharp break: in connecting sections, in movements with continuous motion, in arrangements and playing literature that demands a flowing basic tempo. It thus stands rather for an attitude toward the phrase than for a speed — the performance should remain directed forward. The designation is found above all in German scores and songs of the Romantic period and corresponds to Italian con moto or andante.
Performance practice
Choose the tempo so that you can think a whole phrase in one arc without setting off anew in between. Avoid delays at phrase ends, for precisely these contradict the instruction; instead lead the last note of a phrase toward the first of the next. Keep accompaniment figures even and light. If the movement nevertheless seems heavy, it is usually not due to the tempo but to too many accents.