On Tue, 14 Nov 2000, Daniel Taupin wrote:
>
> However, when looking at scores made at the beginning of the 20th
> century I often find scores with a metronomic specification such as
> <quarter-note> = 100 (up to 132) although this piece has a nearly
> continuous flow of 16th notes. This means, in the intermediate case of a
> quarter note equal to 120, that the music player should play 120*4 notes
> = 480 notes/min, that is 8 notes per second.
>
> This happens with the set of piano exercises by Czerny, in the Organ
> Toccata by Bo�llman, and others. Such a speed seems extremely difficult,
> not only to lay but also to listen to. And also, musix CDs I have of
> some of these works are really played much slower that posted.
>
> My interpretation is that a mechanic metronome set to 60 sounds one
> beat each second, but since it is a pendulum, it sounds alternatingly
>
> tip - top - tip - top - tip - top etc.
>
> Thus I'm afraid that some people understtod the <quarter-notes>=60
> specification to result in quarter notes starting, not on each beat, but
> on each "tip" (or "top"), so that (perhaps?) <quarter-note>=60 would
> mean... 60 quarter notes in TWO minutes.
>
The definition is clear, each beat of pendulum, no matter whether to the right
or to the left, counts. On better metronoms you only see a difference,
but do not hear it. However, it is obviously correct that the metronom settings
prescribed by the composers are often exaggerated. Many historians assume
that Beethoven's metronom was defect. However, there are also other examples
of exaggerations. Reger's organ pieces are not sounding good at all if
one takes his tempi and his dynamics seriously. Reger's friend and interpret
of his Organ piece, Straube, explained it: the composers make only their intention
clear;
Reger wanted a `beseeltes', highly emotional play and not a dull,
`feierliches' one as most organists of his time used to play. I assume
that Bo�llman's intention were the same. Straube said that taking Reger's
instructions precisely would make his compositions totally unclear.
A high setting of the metronom should thus mean that the tempo has to be at the
upper limit of the performer's and the instrument's possibilities.
Czerny obviously wanted that his eleves go their absolute maximum of
`Gel�ufigkeit'. That most of them were unable to reach that speed should
be for them a steady incent to improve it.
As you know, for organ music the acoustic properties of the hall have to
be taken into account, and a rapid prelude played on a small organ in a
small church with a lucid accoustic would form an unstructered and
indigestable sound mass if played with the same tempo on the full organ
in a cathedral. I think to chose the right tempo is an art that belongs
to the interpret, and all interprets agree that it is a quite difficult task.
Christof
