From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Long pieces of
classical music
are often divided into
movements
. They are like different sections of the piece. Movements can be quite short, or extremely long. If you listen to a
symphony
it may often be divided into four movements. In the time of
Haydn
and
Mozart
the four movements were normally: a fast movement, a slow movement, a dance-like movement (
minuet
) and a fast movement to end the work.
Concert programmes usually show how many movements there are in the work that is being performed. It may show this using
Italian
musical terms (e.g.
Allegro
meaning
fast
,
Presto
meaning
very fast
or
Andante
meaning
a gentle walking pace
). Here is an example:
Robert Schumann
: Symphony no 4 in D minor op.120
- Andante con moto ? Allegro di molto
- Romanze: Andante
- Scherzo
: Presto
- Finale
: Allegro vivace - Presto
Sometimes an
orchestra
will take a
minute
or two to
retune
their
instruments
, especially in a
symphony
by
Mahler
or
Shostakovich
where one movement might be as long as 25 minutes. At other times the
conductor
or performer will want to go almost straight on with hardly any break. Sometimes the composer shows that there should be no break at all between movements.
Audiences in the olden days often used to clap between movements, but usually these days they wait until the end of the work to
applaud
.
The
German
word for “movement” (in this musical sense) is “Satz” which really means “
sentence
”. A movement is like a sentence: a collection of things that belong together to make sense. All the movements together are like several sentences: they tell the whole
story
of music.