Offences against the beat: The application of tempo rubato in string quartet performance of early 19th century repertoire

Sophie Wedell

About this exposition

How was tempo rubato applied in string quartet performance in the early 19th century and how is it related to the structure and affect of a piece? Tempo flexibility is an important element of an expressive performance that captivates the audience and conveys the individual characteristics of a certain piece. While an abundance of research has been conducted on the history and application of different types of tempo rubato on various instruments, this aspect of chamber music performance has not received much attention so far. Few sources address the issue with respect to string quartet performance and the existing sources on orchestral playing could give the impression that tempo rubato was hardly used at all in chamber music. We do however find very detailed descriptions of this expressive means in keyboard treatises, such as the piano methods by Carl Czerny and Daniel Gottlob Türk. Taking into account such factors as the way the four parts interact with each other and the affect of a piece I attempted to find parallels between keyboard and chamber music performance and integrate them into a larger context of how tempo rubato was used at the time. I then chose musical examples of three different composers that I could apply my findings to and recorded my interpretations of these pieces on audio to document the outcome.

type	research exposition
keywords	tempo, Carl Czerny, Daniel Gottlob Türk, rubato
date	10/12/2017
published	01/10/2019
last modified	01/10/2019
status	limited publication
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/414140/585696
published in	KC Research Portal
portal issue	3. Internal publication

name	Ex 1 Spohr
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Stowell example 1
copyright	Robin Stowell
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Stowell example 2
copyright	Robin Stowell
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Czerny rubato
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Czerny remarks on how to play example
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

name	Czerny Andantino Score
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

name	Romberg until fermata
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

name	Czerny without tempo rubato
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Czerny with rubato
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Romberg without rubato
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Romberg with rubato
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Hummel without rubato
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Hummel with rubato
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	audio

name	Hummel Score
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	pdf

name	Titlepage 3 (1)
copyright	Sophie Wedell
license	All rights reserved
usages	picture

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Offences against the beat: The application of tempo rubato in string quartet performance of early 19th century repertoire (2019)

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