Origins
The word 'andante' is Italian for 'walking,' and of all the Italian tempo markings used in music, it may be the most intuitive. Where 'allegro' and 'adagio' are abstract concepts (cheerful, at ease), 'andante' is a physical image: the steady pace of a person walking.
The word is the present participle of the Italian verb 'andare' (to go, to walk), one of the most common verbs in the Italian language — and one of the most etymologically mysterious. Latin did not have a verb remotely resembling 'andare.' The standard Latin verbs for motion were 'īre' (to go), 'ambulāre' (to walk), 'vadere' (to go, to walk), and 'currere' (to run). All of the Romance languages preserved some of these — French uses 'aller' (from Latin 'ambulāre' via Vulgar Latin *allāre), Spanish uses 'andar' (which may be related to 'andare' or may have a separate origin), Portuguese uses 'andar' and 'ir' — but Italian 'andare' defies clean derivation from any known Latin form.
The leading hypotheses include: derivation from Latin 'ambulāre' (to walk) through a chain of Vulgar Latin contractions (*ambulāre > *amblāre > *amlāre > *andāre — phonetically possible but poorly documented); derivation from Latin 'adnāre' (to swim toward, to go toward, from 'ad' + 'nāre'); and derivation from a pre-Roman Italic or Celtic substrate word. No single theory has won universal acceptance.
Figurative Development
In musical usage, 'andante' indicates a tempo of approximately 76–108 beats per minute — moderate, unhurried, but with a sense of forward motion. It is the most 'neutral' of the tempo markings: not fast, not slow, simply going. Beethoven described 'andante' as 'a step' — the pace of walking — and this bodily metaphor has shaped how musicians interpret the marking for three centuries.
The diminutive 'andantino' creates a famous ambiguity. In Italian, the '-ino' suffix typically means 'a little' — so 'andantino' should mean 'a little walking,' which is to say 'a little andante.' But does this mean a little slower than andante (less walking, more strolling) or a little faster (less walking, more stepping briskly)? The historical consensus, supported by Beethoven's and Mozart's usage, is that 'andantino' is slightly faster than 'andante' — the diminutive reduces the quality of slowness rather than the speed. But the confusion persists, and performers must rely on musical context.
Andante movements occupy a special place in the classical repertoire. The second movement of a Classical symphony or sonata is often marked 'andante,' providing a lyrical, song-like contrast to the energetic first movement and the dance-like third. Mozart's andante movements are among the most famous: the 'Andante' of his Piano Concerto No. 21 in C major (K. 467), used in the 1967 Swedish film 'Elvira Madigan,' is one of the most recognized pieces of classical music in the world.