Summary
Introduction
The three chapters in Part I are about the most fundamental aspect of musical performance, rhythm, from the basic tempo, and the extent to which it changes within a movement, to the detailed relationship between one note and another.
Rhythmic habits have changed very greatly over the twentieth century. To a late twentieth-century listener, recordings from the early part of the century at first sound rhythmically strange in a number of ways. They seem hasty, slapdash and uncontrolled, in a manner which now sounds incompetent. But this impression is to do with style as well as competence. The impression of haste is caused partly by fast tempos, partly by a tendency to underemphasise rhythmic detail compared with modern performance. A slapdash impression is given by a more casual approach to note lengths and a more relaxed relationship between a melody and its accompaniment. Lack of control is suggested by flexibility of tempo, particularly a tendency to hurry in loud or energetic passages. All of these habits are generally avoided in modern performance, and rhythmic competence is now measured by the extent to which they have been successfully controlled.
Improving discipline has played some part in these changes. Orchestras, in particular, were often a great deal less rehearsed in the early years of the century than they are now, and the general level of rhythmic precision and unanimity was therefore lower.
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- Early Recordings and Musical StyleChanging Tastes in Instrumental Performance, 1900–1950, pp. 5 - 6Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992