A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Animato

by Ebenezer Prout

ANIMATO or CON ANIMA (Ital.), 'With spirit.' This direction for performance is seldom to be found in the works of the older masters, who usually employed 'Con spirito' or 'Spiritoso.' Haydn and Mozart rarely if ever use it; Beethoven never once employs it. In the whole of Clementi's sonatas, numbering more than sixty, it is only to be found three times. He uses it in the first allegro of the sonata in D minor, Op. 50, No. 2, and in the rondo of the 'Didone abbandonata,' Op. 50, No. 3. In both these cases passages are simply marked 'Con anima.' The third instance is especially interesting as proving that the term does not necessarily imply a quick tempo. The slow movement of his sonata in E flat, Op. 47, No. 1, is inscribed 'Adagio molto e con anima.' Weber frequently uses the term (see his sonatas in A flat and D minor), Chopin employs it in his 1st Scherzo and his E minor Concerto, and it is also to be met with in Mendelssohn,—e. g. 'Lieder ohne Worte,' Book 5, No. 4, 'Allegro con anima,' symphony of 'Lobgesang' first allegro 'animato' (full score, p. 17). In these and similar cases no quickening of the tempo is necessarily implied; the effect of animation is to be produced by a more decided marking of the rhythmical accents. On the other hand the term is sometimes used as equivalent to 'stretto,' as for instance in the first allegro of Mendelssohn's Scotch Symphony, where the indication 'assai animate' is accompanied by a change in the metronome time from = 100 to = 120, or at the close of the great duet in the third act of Auber's 'Haydée,' where the coda is marked only 'animate,' but a quicker time is clearly intended. In this, as in so many similar cases, it is impossible to lay down any absolute rule. A good musician will never be at a loss as to whether the tune should be changed or not. [App. p.523 "Add a reference to Mendelssohn's letters to Mrs. Voigt, published in Macmillan's Magazine for June 1871, p. 129."]

[ E. P. ]