Allegro

Allegro
Name	Allegro
Meaning	"fast, lively"
Language	Italian
First used	Baroque period
Related	Vivace, Presto, Andante, Adagio

Allegro

Allegro is an Italian-derived musical tempo and character marking indicating a brisk, lively pace. Used widely by composers from Johann Sebastian Bach to Igor Stravinsky, it appears in movements, symphonies, concertos, sonatas, chamber works, operas, and liturgical settings. Performers and conductors such as Herbert von Karajan, Leonard Bernstein, and Marin Alsop interpret Allegro within stylistic conventions associated with periods like the Baroque, Classical, and Romantic.

Etymology

The term originates from Italian, cognate with words in Latin and Italian language meaning cheerful and lively. Early usages trace to Italian treatises and composers in the late Renaissance and early Baroque scenes associated with cities like Venice, Rome, and Naples. Influential theorists such as Giovanni Battista Martini and publishers in Venice helped standardize the term alongside contemporaneous markings like Andante and Adagio used by Arcangelo Corelli and Claudio Monteverdi.

Musical Meaning and Usage

Allegro denotes a tempo faster than Andante and typically slower than Presto, conveying both speed and an upbeat character. Composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Franz Schubert appended Allegro to movement titles, sometimes qualified as Allegro ma non troppo, Allegro con brio, or Allegro agitato to indicate nuance. In opera and ballet, figures like Gioachino Rossini, Giuseppe Verdi, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky employ Allegro to mark lively arias, overtures, and ensembles.

History and Development

The marking became prominent in the Baroque era with instrumental genres like the concerto grosso and sonata da chiesa; composers including Antonio Vivaldi and Georg Philipp Telemann used Allegro to define fast movements. During the Classical era, figures such as Joseph Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart standardized multi-movement forms with opening Allegro sonata-allegro movements. In the Romantic era, composers like Frédéric Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, and Johannes Brahms adapted Allegro to more expansive tempos and expressive ranges. Modernists like Igor Stravinsky, Arnold Schoenberg, and Sergei Prokofiev reinterpreted Allegro within novel rhythmic and harmonic languages.

Tempo Markings and Metronome Indications

Metronome indications often accompany Allegro to specify beats per minute (BPM); common ranges are associated with markings from early theorists and editors. Typical editorial standards place Allegro roughly between 120–168 BPM, with variants such as Allegro moderato or Allegretto shifting toward ranges linked to 1820s metronome practices popularized by inventors like Johann Nepomuk Mälzel and adopters including Ludwig van Beethoven. Editions by Breitkopf & Härtel, Henle Verlag, and Bärenreiter commonly annotate Allegro entries with suggested BPM values informed by scholarship on sources from libraries such as the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze and the British Library.

Performance Practice and Interpretation

Interpretation of Allegro depends on historical performance practice advocated by figures like Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Christopher Hogwood, and John Eliot Gardiner for early music, which contrasts with Romantic interpretations promoted by conductors such as Arturo Toscanini and Gustav Mahler. Choices about articulation, ornamentation, tempo fluctuations, and phrasing reflect influences from treatises by Johann Joachim Quantz, Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, and Leopold Mozart. Soloists including Itzhak Perlman, Martha Argerich, and Yo-Yo Ma vary Allegro readings according to instrument-specific techniques involving violin bowing, piano pedaling, or cello vibrato traditions traceable to conservatories like the Paris Conservatoire and the Moscow Conservatory.

Allegro in Different Musical Genres

In symphonic repertoire, Allegro frequently labels first movements of works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Gustav Mahler, and Jean Sibelius. Chamber music uses Allegro in string quartets by Joseph Haydn, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Dmitri Shostakovich. In concerto literature, Allegro marks virtuosic outer movements in concertos by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Camille Saint-Saëns. Ballet and opera composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Giacomo Puccini, and Richard Wagner integrate Allegro into dance numbers, overtures, and ensembles. In popular and film music, arrangers influenced by George Gershwin, Bernard Herrmann, and John Williams adapt Allegro-like tempi for orchestral scores.

Notable Works and Examples

Prominent Allegro movements include the opening Allegro of Mozart's Symphony No. 40, Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 first movement, Haydn's string quartet openings in Op. 76, Mozart's piano sonata finales, Vivaldi's fast concerto movements in The Four Seasons, and Chopin's Allegro sections in select piano études and sonatas. Other examples span Brahms's piano concertos, Mendelssohn's violin concerto Allegro, Stravinsky's Firebird suite fast sections, and Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto movements. Performances recorded by orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, and soloists including Sergei Rachmaninoff illustrate historically varied Allegro practice.

Category:Musical terminology