Stewart McCoy wrote: > the Italian word "rubato" > means "robbed" or "stolen". It's used in a musical context to mean > robbing time, or taking time, in other words playing around with the > rhythm (slowing down/ speeding up) with the aim of playing > expressively. Musicians who play alone - guitarists, harpists, > pianists, lutenists, etc. - have a tendency to be quite free with > their interpretation of rhythm.
Rubato is used in two senses, which causes a great deal of confusion among those who think the term has only one meaning. One meaning is simply being free with rhythm and tempo: slow down and speed up as seems appropriate. This is what rubato came to mean in the 19th century. Another meaning is freedom of rhythm in the melody while the accompaniment remains constant, so that any stretching has to be compensated by shortening soon after, and vice versa. This is what the word meant to 18th-century writers like Quantz, CPE Bach and Leopold Mozart. Listen to almost any pop singer and you'll hear this: the accompaniment is in very strict rhythm (assuming the drummer is sober) but the singer is all over the beat, early or late as the spirit moves him/her. Howard Posner To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
