User talk:Dsoslglece

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Moved content from Rubato
I've moved your essay from the topic Rubato to here, because it is not written in an encyclopaedic style. That is, it should be written with a neutral point of view, and should be objective in all aspects, as with all formal writing. Kareeser|Talk! 21:05, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Moved content from Rubato
I've moved your essay from the topic Rubato to here, because it is not written in an encyclopaedic style. That is, it should be written with a neutral point of view, and should be objective in all aspects, as with all formal writing. Kareeser|Talk! 21:05, 28 February 2007 (UTC)

Its original concept today has been so forgotten, that there is a need of giving it a new thought, and to talk a bit about it with some details and examples. Normally written "Tempo rubato," which in Italian means "Stolen time" (from rubare=to steal... there is in English the word "robber"). Rubato is exactly what it says- you steal with one hand to give it back with the other. Unfortunately, it is not generally what the stealers are doing and, just as unfortunately, it is not generally what the players are doing when using a so called rubato.

Of course, there are different kinds of rubato. The most simple would be to play a passage starting slower than the speed and accelerating till the end of the passage, arriving at a tempo faster than the general speed. Alternatively, one could start fast and finish slow. In theory, that little exploit would have exactly the same duration than if it had been played exactly at the same speed all the way along. Of course, this is easier to do as all the parts or different instruments would have play exactly the same way and together. That is generally in use today.

Another technique involves holding a note little bit longer than it's proper value. This is common for instance in the music by Debussy who used it to add expresive value. In fact, if one listens to old recordings of him (such as the Welte-Mignon Piano records), it can be clearly seen that most of the times, that was the signification and the way to play the notes he marked with a small horizontal line. Debussy himself played in that manner all notes marked like that. Incidentally, he was a fantastic pianist, and he also used other types of perfect rubato when necessary.

It can be added that this way of playing was generalised during the whole 17th century (the Baroque Period), especially in France, and for certain notes values. This was used to such an effect that, when it wasn't to be employed, the composers had to mark it down (ex: "les croches esgales" = "the quavers played equally"). One example of it can be seen in Corelli's concerti grossi...

Another interesting fact is that today, that way of playing is widely in use among the jazz players, when they play "swing"... one also says : "ternary"... that is: playing the first of two (otherwise equal) quavers, two thirds of a croched, and the second one one third (in fact like a crochet and a quaver in a triplet). But lets talk a bit now of the complete rubato (should one say: the forgotten one?)... The one mentionned in past centuries theoretical writings... that particular rubato which has been used and described by the great musicians in the course of the centuries... Starting at the 17th...

Emanuel Bach explains how to play his fathers music (and also his own!)... he even tried to note it down... but as soon as you note such a thing, well it is not anymore a rubato, but a series of syncopes!... Others did try the same thing later on, for instance Baillot a great violinist at the turn of 1800, describing Viotti, (an other violinist, contemporary of Mozart, but who died a bit older though) playing one of his concerti... he again noted a whole series of syncopes to indicate the rubato... and it certainly is the only way to explain it... the only wrong thing being that, doing so, one continues to refer to one only speed of beats monitoring the whole thing...

Mozart also (and he certainly new hes business!) talks about it, and he said that "the left hand is the conductor, but that the right one does what it pleases it"... and that, is in fact one of the clearest statements defining the rubato. You indeed have a time continuum in one hand, and an other one going about parallel, but not quite... taking at places some leasure time, and running a bit faster to others... and, doing so, the differences between those two times can be really minimal, much less indeed than when going all parts together, because it is generally more perceptible... but it gives all the same a feeling of total freedom and expression, but also the sensation of stability... Chopin used that way of playing, and with such mastery, and in such a way that he could play the same piece 2 or 3 times at different places of the same concert, without ever giving the feeling of repeating himself...

By the way it is a well known fact about Chopin, that he always had, during his practicing, a metronome going on on his piano... which fact, when you know what is the real rubato, seems not only normal, but also an essential help to keep in mind the "every one's time" when playing in one or more other times continuum...

After Chopin, that art almost disappeared, and, perverted, became what was to be the fashion (from around 1900 till the fourties)for the "second rate pianists"... I mean, to play always (as a sort of automatism) the bass at the left hand, a tiny bit earlier, and let it sound by itself before to play the rest of the harmony... a sort of a "badoom, badoom"... Appart of that, there was certainly a wide use of not keeping with the time, but without, as part of the adventure, keeping an eye on it...

One of the last great players to use the complete rubato was Eugène Ysaÿe the great violinist (he, by the way, spent few years in the states, not counting his concert tours, but as conductor of Cincinnati orchestra), and since it had already at the time become so unusual to use that type of rubato, people playing with him did remark it...

Among them, one of the pianists playing oftens with him in concert, Jacques Dalcroze, said that Ysaÿe would ask to his pianist to play perfectly in time, and not to follow him around in his fantasy... Another one, a conductor, said that acompanying Ysaÿe was very simple indeed, since if he would spend a bit more time in a bar, he would just come back together with the orchestra in the course of the following bar or two...

Today though (appart of the cembalists, I mean the ones playing truly in the barok style) there are unfortunately only two ways generally used to play:

1) Strictly in time, which way lacks a bit of life and expression, or for instance, when so playing a Chopin waltz, makes it look like one of those dancing supports... just to dance over it.

2) with "rubato", but in today's sense, which then lacks generally stability and looses the "dance feeling".

Saint-Saëns talks about it, and by the way, he mentionned one of the Chopin studies as THE study to be played with that type of rubato... There is as an example accompanying that text, an extract of that study... After Chopin, Debussy continued the tradition, as it has been said earlier, but he later played less and concentrated more on composition...

And apparently, one of the last ones to use it, was Rachmaninov, and luckily, there are still quite few recordings of him around... Interesting is the fact that probably, Rachmaninov got that knowledge (or "how-to-do") through Ysaÿe, since they performed together during some tours in the States, Ysaÿe at the end of his carrier, and Rachmaninov at the beginning of his.

As examples for all that, there are few things... first, the Berceuse from Chopin... and here, it really is a "berceuse"... (when you rock a baby to make him sleep)... you have that sort of constant waves at the left hand, coming up and down and keeping mostly with the time... always, and so present that you finish to forget it... you don't hear it anymore... that's the rocking of the cradle which puts you asleep... and then you have the melody, with all those little runs and ornaments, but they are more like a light smoke... transparent... they are completely free, turning around, scrolling at the slightest breath... and they stay completely out of reach... out of the time.

Sometimes, to come back crudely to the technical point of view, and of course, talking about that recording, there is more than a whole beat difference between the two hands, but some professionals listening to that recording did need to follow the music on the written part to realize it and to be convinced of it... And of course then, there is also an extract of that study about rubato mentionned by Saint-Saëns... It has to be said that in that piece, it is a quite different use of rubato, since it serves most of the time here to differenciate the melodies, starting a bit before the time, or a bit after, but without altering the rigour of the repeated chords of the left hand...

Evidently, has to be acknowledged and thanked here, Christine Hartley-Troskie, the American concert pianist playing those examples (dating from 2004), since nobody else is doing it that way today, and since she agreed to let those extracts be published as examples on the net... Dsoslglece 17:54, 25 February 2007 (UTC)

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