A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Slow Movement

SLOW MOVEMENT, (1) A generic term for all pieces in slow time, whether separate, or forming part of a larger work. (2) A name specially applied to such pieces in slow time when they occur in a sonata (or work in sonata-form). When the sonata contains three or more movements, the slow movement may be the second, third, or fourth in the sonata, provided that there is a 'first movement' at the beginning and a finale at the close. In sonatas of only two movements, the slow movement may be either the first, as in Beethoven's Pianoforte Sonata Op. 49, No. 1, or the second, as in his Sonata Op. 90. The right of any movement to this title must depend rather on its character than its time indication, for many movements marked Allegretto are strictly slow movements. [See Sonata.]

[ J. A. F. M. ]