Performance

prac,ce in
the 19th Century
Part 1
Tempo Rubato (lit. Stolen Time)

Version 1:

This brings us to the tempo rubato. Its indica,on is simply the presence of
more or fewer notes than are contained in the normal division of the bar. A
whole bar, part of one, or several bars may be, so to speak, distorted in this
manner. The most dicult but most important task is to give all the notes of
the same value exactly the same dura,on. When the execu,on is such that
one hand seems to play against the bar and the other strictly with it, it may
be said that the performer is doing everything that can be required of him. It
is only rarely that all parts are struck simultaneously.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, Essay on the true art of playing Keyboard Instruments, page 161-162, William J
Mitchell, trans and ed. Eulenburg Books, London, 1974 Original 1787)



As such embellishments occur only in the right hand, while the leZ executes
a simple accompaniment, and as they generally consist of an irregular and
unusual number of notes, which it is dicult to distribute against the
accompaniment; the player must know how to execute them free and
independent of the leZ hand, as too careful a distribu,on of them makes the
whole appear s, and ineec,ve. It should appear as if these
embellishments had rst presented themselves to the player during the
performance, and that they owed unpremeditatedly from his own fancy.

Carl Czerny, Complete Theore9cal and Prac9cal Piano Forte School, op.500, Part III, Page 43, trans.
J.A.Hamilton, (London, R. Cocks and Co, 1839)

 Chord spreading:

Carl Czerny, Complete Theore9cal and

Prac9cal Piano Forte School, op.500, Part
III, Page 55-56, trans. J.A.Hamilton,
(London, R. Cocks and Co, 1839)
Chopins Rubato

What characterised Chopins playing was his rubato, in which the totality of
the rhythm was constantly respected. The leZ hand, I oZen hear him say,
is the Kapellmeister: it mustnt relent or bend. Its a clock. Do with the right
hand what you want and can. He would say: A piece lasts for, say, ve
minutes, only in that it occupies this ,me for an overall performance; internal
details [of pace within the piece] are another maier. And there you have
rubato.

Wilhelm von Lenz, Die Grossen Pianoforte-Virtuosen unsere Zeit (Berlin 1872)

Olympia Boronat (1859-1934)

Qui la Voce from I Puritani by
Gaetano Donizek
(recorded 1904)
Chopins Rubato

In keeping ,me Chopin was inexorable, and some readers will be surprised
to learn that the metronome never leZ his piano. Even in his much maligned
tempo rubato, the hand responsible for the accompaniment would keep
strict ,me, while the other hand, singing the melody, would free the essence
of the musical thought from all the rhythmic feiers, either by lingering
hesitantly or by eagerly an,cipa,ng the movement with a certain impa,ent
vehemence akin to passionate speech.

Carl Mikuli, Vorwort to Chopins Pianoforte Werke, ed. Mikuli (Leipzig, 1880)

Look at these trees!, Liszt said, the wind plays in the leaves, s,rs up the life
among them, the tree remains the same, that is Chopinesque rubato.

Frederick Niecks, Frederick Chopin as a man and musician, Vol. 2, p. 101 (London 1902)

Chopin Etude op 25 no 7
Tempo Rubato

Version 2:
Many persons s,ll erroneously imagine, that, in applying the metronome, they
are bound to follow its equal and undevia,ng mo,on throughout the whole
piece, without allowing themselves any la,tude in the performance for the
display of taste or feeling.

Johann Nepomuk Hummel, A Complete Theore9cal and Prac9cal Course of Instruc9ons, on the Art of Playing the Piano
Forte, iii, 63 (London, 1828)

One demands a uniform rate of ,me, without accelerando or ritardando; the
other, on the contrary, is accustomed to quicken and slacken with every rhythm,
every change. The rst regards regular and mechanical precision the height of
perfec,on; the second will alter the ,me at every phrase, and will not feel
anything objec,onable in the constant irregularity. Now we have observed that
the warmest par,sans of the uniform and regular rate of ,me are precisely those
who have no feeling for expression.

Mathis Lussy, Trait de lexpression musicale: Accents, nuances et mouvements dans la musique vocale et instrumentale
(Paris, 1874), trans. M.E. von Glehn as Musical Expression (London, 1885)


On this occasion we received an important insight into the Lisz,an rubato
that is, the subtle varia,ons of tempo and expression within a free
declama,on, which are en,rely dierent from Chopins rubato of hastening
and lingering. The Liszt rubato is more like a sudden, light suspension of the
rhythm on this or that signicant note, so that by this means the phrasing is
clearly and convincingly brought out. In his playing Liszt seemed to pay liile
aien,on to a steady beat, and yet neither the aesthe,c symmetry not the
rhythm was disturbed.

Carl V. Lachmund, Mein Leben mit Franz Liszt: Aus dem Tagebuch eines Liszt-Schlers. (Eschwege, Schroeder,
1970)

With regard to the decep,ve Tempo rubato, I have seiled the maier
provisionally in a brief note (in the nale of Webers A at major Sonata);
other occurrences of the rubato may be leZ to the taste and momentary
feeling of giZed players. A metronomical performance is certainly ,resome
and nonsensical; ,me and rhythm must be [adapted to and] iden,ed with
the melody, the harmony, the accent and the poetry... But how indicate all
this? I shudder at the thought of it.

Franz Liszt, Briefe, ii, p.156, trans. Constance Bache (London, 1893)


Todays manner of performing classical music of the so-called roman,c
type, suppressing all emo,onal quali,es and all unnotated changes of tempo
and expression, derives from the style of playing primi,ve dance music [...]
Thus almost everywhere in Europe music is played in a s, inexible metre
not in tempo, i.e. according to a yards,ck of freely measured quan,,es.

Arnold Schoenberg, Style and Idea, ed. Leonard Stein (London, 1975), p.320
Brahms Rubato

Brahms manner of interpreta,on was free, very elas,c and expansive; but
the balance was always there one felt the fundamental rhythms underlying
the surface rhythms. His phrasing was notable in lyric passages. In these a
strictly metronomic Brahms is as unthinkable as a fussy or hurried Brahms is
passages which must be presented with adaman,ne rhythm. Behind his oZen
rugged, and almost sketchy playing, there never failed to appear that
rou,ned and denite school of technique without which he might some,mes
have become almost a caricature of himself. [...] He belonged to that racial
school of playing which begins its phrases well, ends them well, leaves plenty
of space between the end of one and the beginning of another, and yet joins
them without hiatus. .

Fanny Davies, Some Personal Recollec9ons of Brahms as Pianist and Interpreter, in CobbeXs Cyclopedic Survey
of Chamber Music, Ed. Walter Cobbei (London 1929), p.182

Brahms Rubato

In my view, the metronome isnt worth much; at least, so far as I know, many a
composer has withdrawn his metronome markings sooner or later. Those which
are found in the Requiem are there because good friends talked me into them.
For I myself have never believed that my blood and a mechanical instrument go
well together. The so-called elas,c tempo is not a new discovery, aZer all, and to
it, as to many another, one should aiach a con discrezione. Is that an answer? I
know of none beier; what I know, however, is that I indicate my tempos in the
heading, without numbers, modestly but with the greatest care and clarity.

George Henschel, Personal Recollec9ons of Johannes Brahms (Boston, 1907), p.78-79
Brahms hairpins

This piece must be performed with much varia,on of tempo, but always gentle
and without disorderliness. The signs ---------------- stand for accelerando and
ritardando

Fanny Hensel, autograph of Allegro ma non troppo in F minor, Staatsbiliothek zu Berlin Preuischer Kulturbesitz,
Musikabteilung mit Mendelssohn-Archiv, Shelf number MS.35

Like Beethoven, he was most par,cular that his marks of expression (always as
few as possible) should be the means of conveying the inner musical meaning.
The sign -----------------, as used by Brahms, oZen occurs when he wishes to
express great sincerity and warmth, applied not only to tone but to rhythm also.
He would linger not on one note alone, but on a whole idea, as if unable to tear
himself away from its beauty. He would prefer to lengthen a bar or phrase
rather than spoil it by making up the ,me into a metronomic bar.

Fanny Davies, Some Personal Recollec9ons of Brahms as Pianist and Interpreter, in CobbeXs Cyclopedic Survey of
Chamber Music, Ed. Walter Cobbei (London 1929), p.182

are of course not to be taken literally. It should merely be an image for the
direc,on a line takes. Or as a degree of intensity. More a sugges,on for the
understanding of a line, than as a performance indica,on.

Arnold Schoenberg, leier to Ferruccio Busoni in Briefwechsel zwischen Arnold Schoenberg und Ferruccio Busoni
1903-1919, ed. Juia Theurich, Beitrge zur MusikwissenschaZ 3 (1977), p.168 & 170



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