Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🚶 A slow tempo 🚶 Moderately slow 🚶 At a slow pace 🚶 A slow section
andante

andante

8.3
A piece or section played at a moderately slow musical speed
  • noun
  • /ænˈdɑːnteɪ/
  • Specialized
translation icon : andante
  • The orchestra played the andante beautifully, capturing the emotional depth of the music.

Examples

  • During the concert, the soloist performed an exquisite andante that created a serene atmosphere.

  • A muted trumpet opens the bluesy Andante, which leads to a quicker blues for the solo piano and then a broad, singing third theme, before returning to the opening melody, this time carried by solo flute.

    Academic text (1998)

  • They begin with the Andante Cantabile for full strings, and Mehli interrupts them from time to time to subtly tweak their sound.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • To my mind there are places in the second movement of the Andante where the purity of the melodic line is impaired by a rather too demonstrative rendering of the clarinets.

    Nine Men (1943)

  • "It is only the andante of the Nielsen that we need to go over, and it only takes 14 minutes or even less if you employ that Stern afterburner," he paused to let her relish his cleverness, "you have so wonderfully acquired."

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The andante section of the symphony gradually lulled the audience into a state of relaxation.

Surface Forms

andante singular
andantes plural

Etymology

Andante comes from the Italian word andare, which means 'to go' or 'to walk'. So when it names a piece or section it means the music should be played at a calm, walking tempo.