The Art of Rubato: The Musical Expression of Tempo

To students:  Udemy forces instructors to make the "first" video in a course a "free preview."  I didn't want the earlier optional stuff to be previewed as it is not the heart and soul of the course, but I also didn't want to move this lecture to the beginning and have it be missing here.  That's why it appears twice in the lineup.

Question from student:  "Many recognize that rhythm and movement are inextricably linked. How does the element of MOVEMENT play into this discussion of rubato? I wanted to MOVE while listening to the excerpts (or, at least, audiate/think movement). Is this something you would encourage or invite course/presentation participants to do?"

Answer:   I believe that anything people do to help perceive tempo while listening to these excerpts should be done!  I haven't studied the inextricable link between rhythm and movement that you mention, but it certainly doesn't surprise me as I find even myself (one who hates to dance!) moving a toe, finger, foot, hand, certain leg muscles, or sometimes tapping teeth (very lightly) when listening to music, marking the beat.  I'm certain that if I were a student in my own course, I'd be doing all of that stuff, and I'm sure it would help to perceive various tempo changes.

Question from a student:  "What is the difference between phrasing and shaping?  I tend to think of phrasing as creating breaks between slurs, whereas shaping is more abut the dynamics (volume) used subtly to make the phrase sound natural and expressive."

Answer:  I used to think of phrasing and shaping similarly, but as time has gone on in my teaching, I find myself using the word shaping as a mere component of phrasing.  I use phrasing to refer more generally to both dynamic and articulative features that help to convey where phrases begin and end.  Physical lifts between slurs obviously convey phrasing to the listener, but sometimes we have musical contexts where everything is legato/pedaled, like in a Chopin nocturne.  In that case, the listener still hears phrases in the pianist's playing even when everything is legato and there is no rubato, so it doesn't feel right to me to avoid calling that phrasing just because there is no opportunity for audible lifts/rests/breaths.  The phrase is created by so much more than just articulation - it's created with dynamic and rubato nuance as well.  In my mind, shaping just refers more specifically to dynamic nuance without any regard for articulation or rubato.

Question from student:  Does the cadential type tend to emphasize the pre-dominant, the resolution, or either?

Answer:  Both!  In the compound rubato lecture (which is a few videos from now), in the example where “Uchida plus Perahia equals Sofronitsky,” you had one pianist essentially placing the dot on the dominant, and another pianist placing the dot on the resolution. Sofronitsky does both. All of them work. I guess it could be similar to the idea that in a “question – answer” scenario (when speaking in English), do we emphasize the question, or the answer? Sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes both. I’m not sure if there is a pattern to when we would want to emphasize one or the other.  It might have more to do with personal habit and preferences of the performer.

Question from student:  I would love to know more about the "why" here - why does it benefit us/students to recognize these compound rubato types?

Answer:  Nested rubato doesn’t occur too frequently, so that will be marginally useful to point out (but depending on the student, could be a stimulating/interesting thing to point out). But coinciding rubato is something I point out to every student eventually, because coinciding rubato happens almost constantly in music with rubato. Rubato instances that have more than one reason going on for the rubato are more common than instances where the rubato is done for one and only one reason.

And then while I wouldn’t say joining rubato occurs in every piece, I also wouldn’t call it a “rare” occurrence.  Mostly I would just encourage teachers to point things like that out as they appear in music, unless the student is particularly curious about all the ways rubato can work. On the other hand, when my students get to an early or mid advanced level, I give all of them my whole system of rubato, compound and all.

One student who went to NTU majoring in piano wrote me in her sophomore year out of the blue, thanking me for giving her such a great foundation in rubato. She said both peers and professors had been noticing her intelligent and creative use of rubato in music, and she was also able to better understand the rubato her professor used in his demonstrations of music she was learning.  She said it made a real difference in preparing her for further study.