The later type of rubato is what we today would call simply “rubato”, which coincides with tempo change in all parts and in both hands. Peres Da Costa explains that it “is used in
fairly subtle ways to enhance the ebb and flow of a musical phrase. And this generally takes place whether indicated by the composer or not.”1 As already mentioned, the execution of
earlier rubato on the keyboard demands the independence of both hands, and the difficulty in achieving this independence may have led to the use of the term “rubato” as a general
tempo change. In addition, as 18th-century compositional practices had used sparse notation and performances were left mainly to the performers' discretion, the music gradually
became notated in more detail into the 19th-century, with the compositions becoming more complex and large-scale and with growth in the size of orchestras. As a result, the freedom
of the individual performance parts was reduced, and a unified tempo change was taken under the conductor's direction, which may also have been a background to this change.
Even before this general tempo modification in a piece came to be called rubato, there is evidence of tempo modifications. Written examples can be found everywhere: the
indication of prestissimo or allegro in C.P.E Bach's fantasias, which appear in the middle of the piece, and in Mozart's or Beethoven's pieces, which are adagio, presto, calando,
smorzando, ritardando, rallentando, agitato, accelerando etc.
However, there are few sources on how unwritten tempo modifications were used. In 1846, Carl Czerny (1791-1857) stated that the strict keeping of time had been “almost entirely
forgotten”2 and that arbitrary changes of tempo—both acceleration and deceleration—were then “often employed even to caricature.”3 Also, according to him, “the Ritardando is
much more frequently employed than the accelerando”,4 and he described where it should be used in 11 cases; for example, it is in passages such as “return to the principal subject”5
and “lead to some separate member of a melody”,6 and so on. Moreover, “almost always where the Composer has indicated an espressivo”.7 The later types of rubato have been
abused, as is the case with dislocation and unnotated arpeggiation. It is also clear that it was implicitly considered acceptable to change the tempo at specific points.
Richard Wagner’s(1813-1883) conducting was notorious for his exaggerated use of rubato:
In 1855 Wagner conducted a series of concerts in London, and the critics complained about his `retardations and accelerations of time and ill-measured rallentandi'. Henry Smart
describes the tempo changes more precisely: "he prefaces the entry of an important point, or the return of a theme- especially in a slow movement—by an exaggerated
ritardando; and. he reduces the speed of an allegro--say in an overture or the first movement— fully one-third, immediately on the entrance of its cantabile phrases."8
There is also a famous example of the later rubato that for the “< >” symbols that Johannes Brahms (1833-1897) frequently wrote in his works, he intended a change of tempo
rather than dynamics. Fanny Davies (1861-1934), who heard Brahms on many occasions, described the indication:
“The sign ‘< >’, as used by Brahms, often occurs when he wishes to express great sincerity and warmth, applied not only to tone but to rhythm also. He would linger not on one
note alone but on a whole idea, as if unable to tear himself away from its beauty. He would prefer to lengthen a bar or a phrase rather than spoil it by making up the time into a
metronomic bar.”9
1. Peres Da Costa, Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing, 251.
2. Carl Czerny, The Art of Playing the Ancient and Modern Piano Forte Works Op. 500 (London: Cocks, 1846), 29.
3. Ibid.
4. Carl Czerny, Vollständige theoretische-practische Pianoforte-Schule Op. 500. 3 vols (Vienna: 1839). Trans. as Theoretical and Practical Pianoforte School Op. 500 (London: Cocks), 33.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. Hudson, Stolen Time: The History of Tempo Rubato, 312.
9. Peres Da Costa, Off the Record: Performing Practices in Romantic Piano Playing, 263. See also, Fanny Davies, ”Some Personal Recollections of Brahms as Pianist and Interpreter”, Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, compiled and ed. Walter W. Cobbett, with supplementary material ed. Colin Mason, 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press 1963), vol. 1, 182.
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