Arguments: Building a Subtopic and Compiling Evidence

Question: How might un-notated tempo fluctuations or rubato have been approached
differently in the Baroque and Romantic periods?
Context(s):
In his examination of 19th-century rubato, Clive Brown (1999: pp.66-73) raises several important
questions about how performers approached it at the time, and in turn, one must consider
exactly how this reflects a very different tradition than that embodied by performers in the early
18th century, particularly as solo keyboard performers would have been playing different genres
on very different instruments and in very different venues or performance contexts. [More…?]
Hypothesis (for this one subtopic):
Clearly, performers in the early-18th and mid-19th centuries would have arguably taken a more
flexible approach to rubato in their interpretations of solo keyboard works, with potentially
much more rubato used during the Romantic period. [Does context influence this change?]
Quotes (but how do these quotes relate to the score examples…?):
C. Kent (1731) argues that the performers should be sensitive to the ‘natural ebbing and flowing
of the musical ideas, and that the bar lines must not be seen as rigid divisions in the overall
metrical structure’ (Kent, 1731; as quoted in Smith, 2014: p.64). [Transition? Evidence?]
In characterising the rubato used by pianist Clara Valentina in a recital given in Leipzig in May
1852, Robert Schumann described her effective use of rubato in the following terms: ‘The lovely
Valentina demonstrated the hallmarks of a truly sensitive and Romantic spirit; with each passing
phrase, the music breathed outward with increasing passion and intensity, and the forward
momentum carried her musical spirit (and with it, that of the audience) through to the final,
ecstatic bars of Chopin’s Ballade’ (Schumann, May 1852; as quoted in Jones, 1994: p.331).
Score examples:
On one hand, a work such as the Gavotte from Bach’s French Suite in G major, BWV 816—
with its characteristic rhythmic patterns and constant crotchet rhythms in the LH (as seen below
in bars 1-4)—would seemingly not offer the performer much opportunity for tempo flexibility.

However, comparatively more improvisatory works such as Bach’s Fantasias or Toccatas (for
keyboard or organ) often feature passages which demand that the performer use an appropriate
degree of flexibility. See, for example, the con discrezione passage from the Toccata in D major,
BWV 912 (shown below); in this passage, numerous fermatas, rapidly shifting rhythmic values,
arpeggiated chords, notated tremolo, and other quasi-improvisatory gestures clearly require a
markedly more nuanced approach to tempo and rubato than that seen in a dance movement (or
indeed, how a performer might execute a fugue). [Contrasting example as evidence? More?]
[Transition from Bach to Schumann….?] As Schumann articulates in his concert review above,
the performer clearly has scope to interpret the music with a degree of flexibility that exceeds
that which the composer notates. For example, his own Kreisleriana, movement 2 (bars 31-41
shown below) offers specific tempo or character markings, as well as indications of ritardando
between successive sections of the work; but, it is evident that additional tempo modifications
were not only expected, but also an important aspect of the way in which the performer
translated the composer’s musical ideas to an audience. [NB. Can one take this one step
further….in the example below, where else might the performer add additional rubato?
And why? Texture? Harmony? Ends of phrases? Etc.]

Conclusion:
As the examples above demonstrate, the musical notation itself offers very different (and in
some cases, exceptionally specific) clues to the performer. While Schumann’s own notation (as
seen in the extract from Kreisleriana shown above) is more proscriptive in its use of notated
tempo modification, his own writings also clarify that the performer at the time would have had
the freedom to introduce additional tempo fluctuations in addition to those indicated by the
composer. By contrast, it is easy to assume that performers would not have used rubato in the
Baroque period, though the evidence above suggests this was not universally true, and that
subtle deviations within the overall tempo were at times permissible or even desirable
(particularly within certain keyboard genres that feature an improvisatory style).