Poco Moto in Fuer Elise

[Jim Fekete]

Simple question here. The tempo of Beethoven's "Fuer Elise" is shown as
"Poco Moto", which translates into "little motion". What's that got to
do with tempo? ;-) How should i interpret that?

TIA,

Jim

[Betsy]

Think forward line and long phrases instead of vertical harmonies.

It basically could be translated "not too slow & drawn out" or "lay off the
sugar" (as most people play it too romanticized!)

"Jim Fekete" <jimfe...@ameritech.net> wrote in message
news:a%Vnc.6159$eH1.3...@newssvr28.news.prodigy.com...

[Don A. Gilmore]

Hi Jim:

"Poco" in music would better be translated as "a little", meaning
'somewhat', rather than just "little", which seems to imply smallness. I
would interpret "poco moto" as indicating a tempo somewhere around
andantino.

It's known that Beethoven was perplexed by the meaning of "andantino" and he
usually avoided its use. He considered it an ambiguous marking since it is
not intuitively clear whether andantino means "faster than andante" or
"slower than andante". The "-ino" suffix simply indicates "more andante".
Since andante is a relatively medium-to-slow tempo in music, one might
interpret it as "more slowness", just as you might interpret "largissimo".
So I guess its translation depends on whether you consider andante (walking
pace) a relatively slow activity or that more andante means more (faster)
motion.

In modern music andantino is considered to be a little faster than andante.

Hope this helps.

Don

"Jim Fekete" <jimfe...@ameritech.net> wrote in message
news:a%Vnc.6159$eH1.3...@newssvr28.news.prodigy.com...

[Simon Goss]

Hi Don,

>"Poco" in music would better be translated as "a little", meaning
>'somewhat', rather than just "little", which seems to imply smallness.

There is a difference between "poco", which means "not very", and "un
poco" (or un po') which means "somewhat". "Poco moto" really means "not
very fast" (loose translation because "moto" is difficult to translate
literally).

>I
>would interpret "poco moto" as indicating a tempo somewhere around
>andantino.

Yes.

>It's known that Beethoven was perplexed by the meaning of "andantino" and he
>usually avoided its use. He considered it an ambiguous marking since it is
>not intuitively clear whether andantino means "faster than andante" or
>"slower than andante". The "-ino" suffix simply indicates "more andante".
>Since andante is a relatively medium-to-slow tempo in music, one might
>interpret it as "more slowness", just as you might interpret "largissimo".

You appear to have conflated "-ino", which is a diminutive suffix, with
"-issimo", the superlative suffix.

>So I guess its translation depends on whether you consider andante (walking
>pace) a relatively slow activity or that more andante means more (faster)
>motion.
>
>In modern music andantino is considered to be a little faster than andante.

Here is the definition of Andantino from the Concise Oxford Dictionary
of Music:

"A diminution of andante. Unfortunately, some composers use it
meaning a little slower than andante, and others use it as
meaning a little quicker. (If a performer, use your own
judgement; if a composer, avoid the ambiguous term.)"

Best regards,

--
Simon

UK Go Challenge for schools, Summer term 2004
http://www.ukgochallenge.com

[James King]

> Here is the definition of Andantino from the Concise Oxford Dictionary
> of Music:

> "A diminution of andante. Unfortunately, some composers use it meaning
> a little slower than andante, and others use it as meaning a little
> quicker. (If a performer, use your own judgement; if a composer, avoid
> the ambiguous term.)"

That's because -ino can mean something like "half as," so half as slow
is even slower still, or "not quite as," so not quite as slow is a
little faster.

If a composer chooses to use the term, s/he should also include a
metronome marking for reference.

James King

--
And that's the James King Version!

[IPGrunt]

"Betsy" <n0s...@spam.c-0> seems to think in
news:8sWnc.42$2U1....@news.abs.net:

For me, this means it must have life, have motion. But don't rush it.

As Betsy says, it cannot be overly dramatised, drawn out. It must be light,
free, but have some drive.

Poco moto.

-- ipgrunt

[YYZ]

James King wrote:

< good stuff as ever from jk, even the "half as(***)" ref, deleted >

> James King
>
> --
> And that's the James King Version!

newly-revized .. ? would explain your absence/s - been buzy editting :)

warmest greetings, james! trusting that you/yours are well .. stay so!
--
www.mozilla.org

[Jim Fekete]

Hey, thanks to you and Betsy for that. It makes some sense to me, as it
is easy to fall into playing it in a dramatic way. I guess you could
also say that the tempo/dynamics should be somewhat consistent through
the arpeggiated sections (the interruptions are a whole nother deal, and
a different post! ;-)

Thanks,

Jim

[Jim Fekete]

James King wrote:

>>Here is the definition of Andantino from the Concise Oxford Dictionary
>>of Music:
>
>
>>"A diminution of andante. Unfortunately, some composers use it meaning
>>a little slower than andante, and others use it as meaning a little
>>quicker.

And THAT's why its so refreshing to come home from an engineering job
and play piano! (seriously, not being facecious here!)

Jim

[sparta...@gmail.com]

you are cool

[Mort]

Twelve years late, but posted today, poco moto more or less equals
andantino.

Mort Linder