What is Movement (music)?
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 [[Joseph Haydn|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 language|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 [[musical tuning|retune]] their [[musical instrument|instruments]], especially in a [[symphony]] by [[Gustav Mahler|Mahler]] or [[Dmitri Shostakovich|Shostakovich]] where one movement might be as long as 25 minutes. At other times the [[Conductor (music)|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 [[applause|applaud]]. The [[German language|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. [[Category:Musical forms]]