Unraveling Musical Relativity: Following in the Footsteps of 19th-century Conductors

Andreas Hansson

When listening to early orchestral recordings, we are immediately confronted with a musical reality far detached from our own. Many aspects of these recordings sound quite alien to modern listeners and performers alike. Yet, the same recordings are often remarkably expressive and display great freedom which breathes fresh life into works which we now sometimes tend to take for granted. This expressiveness and freedom seems to a great degree to stem from a very different, more fluent, concept of musical time. In this research I wanted to understand these recordings better, to see what can be learned from them and how it can be applied in modern practice. I asked the question: how can analyses of recordings by Felix Weingartner, Willem Mengelberg and Pierre Monteux aid the use of 19th-century stylistic traits in modern orchestral performance practices? This research question was answered by first conducting detailed quantitative analysis on unnotated use of tempo flexibility and portamento on recordings made by these conductors. This was followed by an experimental practice-based phase where these findings were applied. The most striking finding of my analyses is the ways in which all three conductors used un-notated tempo flexibility. Using the structuralist and rhetorical terminology of Nicholas Cook (2013), in slightly altered form, their interpretations all exhibit rhetorical tendencies, with Weingartner being the most structuralist, Mengelberg the most rhetorical, and Monteux somewhere in the middle. Additionally, several concrete style elements connected to the use of unnotated tempo flexibility were identified, internalized, and applied in the practice-based phase. Having engaged deeply with the interpretations of these three conductors, I now feel freer to make my own interpretations without feeling restricted by traditions or modern performance practices. Most importantly, this takes the form of my increased use of un-notated tempo flexibility as an expressive tool.

Full Thesis as pdf

Video clips

Tempo Graphs

Weingartner’s tempo graphs: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1185138/1185217

Mengelberg’s tempo graphs: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1185138/1185266

Monteux’s tempo graphs: https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1185138/1185291

Audio Clips

Audio clip 3.1.2.1.1, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 1, showing gradual tempo shift in bars 61-65.

Audio clip 3.1.2.1.2, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 1, showing sudden tempo shift in bar 45

Audio clip 3.1.2.1.3, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 1, showing early second beat in bars 19-21

Audio clip 3.1.2.1.4, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 1, showing prolonged third beat in bars 85-89

Audio clip 3.1.2.1.5, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 1, showing emphasis on accentuation in bars 38-42

Audio clip 3.1.2.1.6, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 1, showing emphasis on cantabile material in bars 83-98

Audio clip 3.1.2.1.7, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 1, showing portamento in cello in bar 5

Audio clip 3.1.2.2.1, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 2, showing prolonged upbeat in conjunction with shortened preceding beat in upbeat to bar 8

Audio clip 3.1.2.2.2, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 2, showing prolonged upbeat without shortening of the preceding beat in upbeat to bar 1

Audio clip 3.1.2.2.3, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 2, showing upbeat stretched over two beats in bar 1

Audio clip 3.1.2.2.4, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 2, showing portamento in violins in bar 80

Audio clip 3.1.2.3.1, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 3, showing sudden tempo shift inversely connected to musical texture in bar 93

Audio clip 3.1.2.3.2, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 3, showing alternating parts of the orchestra start slow and speed up in bars 127-142

Audio clip 3.1.2.3.3, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 3, showing rushing to an important beat in bars 101-102

Audio clip 3.1.2.3.4, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 3, showing a hint of ‘Viennese Waltz’ rhythm in bars 26-27

Audio clip 3.1.2.4.1, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 4, showing gradual tempo shift inversely connected to musical texture in bars 344-348

Audio clip 3.1.2.4.2, Snippet of Weingartner’s recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No.3, movement 4, showing gradual increase in tempo after slow start in bars 76-83

Audio clip 3.2.2.1.1, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 1, showing gradual tempo shift directly connected to dynamics in bars 80-83

Audio clip 3.2.2.1.2, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 1, showing sudden tempo shift directly connected to dynamics in bar 186

Audio clip 3.2.2.1.3, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 1, showing sudden tempo shift inversely connected to texture in bar 50

Audio clip 3.2.2.1.4, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 1, showing gradual tempo shift inversely connected to texture in bars 31-34

Audio clip 3.2.2.1.5, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 1, showing tempo connected to phrasing over two bars in bars 5-6

Audio clip 3.2.2.1.6, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 1, showing tempo connected to phrasing in multiple bars in bars 22-25

Audio clip 3.2.2.1.7, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 1, showing portamento in first violins in upbeat to bar 60

Audio clip 3.2.2.2.1, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 2, showing prolonged upbeat in conjunction with shortened previous beat in upbeat to bar 9

Audio clip 3.2.2.2.2, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 2, showing prolonged upbeat without shortened previous beat in upbeat to bar 112

Audio clip 3.2.2.2.3, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 2, showing portamento in double basses in bar 30

Audio clip 3.2.2.3.1, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 3, showing portamento in first violins in bars 1-6

Audio clip 3.2.2.4.1, Snippet of Mengelberg’s recording of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No.5, movement 4, showing portamento in violins in bars 98-105

Audio clip 3.3.2.1.1, Snippet of Monteux’s recording of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, showing gradual tempo shift directly connected to dynamics in the first to the third bar in 62

Audio clip 3.3.2.1.2, Snippet of Monteux’s recording of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, showing sudden tempo shift directly connected to dynamics in the upbeat to the first bar in 60

Audio clip 3.3.2.1.3, Snippet of Monteux’s recording of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, showing sudden tempo shift inversely connected to texture in the first to the fourth bar in 19

Audio clip 3.3.2.1.4, Snippet of Monteux’s recording of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, showing gradual tempo shift inversely connected to texture from 43 to 44

Audio clip 3.3.2.1.5, Snippet of Monteux’s recording of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, showing tempo connected to phrasing in the third beat of bar 1 to the second beat of bar 3

Audio clip 3.3.2.1.6, Snippet of Monteux’s recording of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, showing emphasis on accentuation at the first bar in 47

Audio clip 3.3.2.1.7, Snippet of Monteux’s recording of Stravinsky’s Le Sacre du Printemps, showing emphasis on cantabile material from the first to the fourth bar in 25

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