adagios

    “Adagio“ (1899) 

 

       Tom Roberts

           _______

   

                           for my mom

 

my mom, the other day, said she’d

looked up adagio in the dictionary, 

after having read a recent post I’d

submitted, as well, andante, and 

allegro 

 

well, that took long enough, I 

thought, but concluded that we all 

get the information we need in our 

own good time, and it’s never, ever, 

too late 

 

they’re all tempi, of course, adagio 

is slow, from ad agio in Italian, in 

English, at ease, the other two are 

incrementally faster  

 

the adagio doesn’t usually stand 

alone, it is too somber a pace to

immediately attract attention, it

therefore mostly fits into other 

compositions that have a more 

vigorous, a more engaging, 

introduction, usually as its 

second movement 

 

but here’s Albinoni’s Adagio in G 

minor, a work of only one segment, 

which indeed would’ve been part  

of a trio sonata, purportedly, had 

Albinoni lived to complete it

 

the rule is not fast, Beethoven 

starts his “Moonlight” Sonata with 

an adagio, for instance, boldly and 

unforgettably, indeed immortally

 

here’s the adagio that always 

stops my breath, from Schubert’s

masterpiece for string quintet, his

D956

 

listen

 

R ! chard