Tobiah,
   --- On Mon, 4/8/13, Tobiah <t...@tobiah.org> wrote:
   > I've heard it expressed by one professor, that
   > absolute metric time was desired during the Renaissance.
   I very much doubt it. I've never met anyone who was alive during the
   Renaissance to tell me what people desired in a tactus. Perhaps the
   professor is older.
   > I also remember the notion that rubato, in the romantic
   > period, was just a way of lending or borrowing time
   > in such a way that the same piece played straight through
   > at a constant tempo would end at the same time as the
   > performance where rubato was performed.
   Various 19th century writers discuss rubato in terms similar to this.
   Rubato is also described as a strict accompaniment over which a melodic
   part may ebb and flow freely. I've done a bit of study of the subject
   of 19th century performance practice and I know of no late 19th
   century/early 20th century recordings that utilize either type of
   rubato - at least none that would qualify as a concrete demonstration
   of the definitions.
   That is because the very words used to define the term "rubato" are
   highly subjective. What may have sounded "strict" or "steady" to 19th
   century ears sounds like serious liberties with the beat to us. Today
   we're constantly inundated with devices utilizing time measurement
   precision of a kind inconceivable to musicians of the past. Their
   frames of reference were decidedly non-mechanical. They drew tempo
   analogues to the speed of natural cycles such as the rate of a heart
   beat, walking or breathing. This, even after the invention of the
   metronome. Hummel wrote that, "Many people erroneously imagine that, in
   applying the metronome, they are bound to follow its equal and
   undeviating motion throughout the whole piece."
   How much can we extrapolate these themes back in time? I dunno. Ask
   your professor who knows those folks from the Renaissance. ;-)
   Chris
   Dr. Christopher Wilke D.M.A.
   Lutenist, Guitarist and Composer
   www.christopherwilke.com

   --


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