The Short

388 TEMPO MODIFICATION
regards regular and mechanical precision as the height of perfection; the second will alter the time at every phrase,
and will not feel anything objectionable in the constant irregularity. Now we have observed that the warmest
partisans of the uniform and regular rate of time are precisely those who have no feeling for expression.
He went on to admit, however, that not every piece required or tolerated the same degree of tempo modification:
In Prestos, Allegros, Galops Valses etc. it seems natural to keep up a uniform rate, only slackening with the loss of
power and impetus, or when there is an evident change of structure. And in slow impressive pieces, such as
Nocturnes, Rondos, Reveries, Andantes, Adagios, Romances etc. it seems equally natural to modify the time. In
such pieces there should be accelerandos and ritardandos according to every change of feeling, and whenever the
expressive structure of the phrases, or their motion up or down seems to require them. 754
It is clear from these accounts that there was a well-recognized distinction between the slight flexibility that was always
intended to be present in a sensitive performance, and more major disturbances of the rhythmic flow, such as
pronounced rallentandos at the ends of sections and perceptible alternation of slower and faster tempos within a single
movement. As Lussy's comments indicate, there was also seen to be a difference between various genres of music.
Perhaps more importantly, the development of a repertoire that contained an increasing proportion of established
masterpieces from different periods and traditions, and (particularly after the establishment of the railways from the
1840s) the increasing internationalization of musical culture, fostered the growth of stylistic awareness and the
recognition that different kinds of music required different approaches. Thus, with respect to tempo modification,
García observed that ‘The compositions of Mozart, Cimarosa, Rossini &c, demand great exactitude in their rhythmic
movements,’ but he also remarked: ‘Donizetti's music—and above all Bellini's contains a great number of passages,
which without indications either of rallentando or accelerando, require both to be employed.’ 755
The discussion so far has been concerned largely with solo playing and singing. It seems to have been understood,
however, that the same principles applied to a considerable extent to playing in small ensembles, especially in passages
where an individual instrument was to the fore. Spohr, for instance, cautioned the second violinist in a quartet to be
careful to follow ‘the slight changes of time which the first violinist may possibly introduce’. 756 And accounts of
performances by the Schuppanzigh Quartet suggest that they employed some degree of tempo modification as an
expressive resource. 757
754
Musical Expression, 163.
755
New Treatise, 50.
756
Violin School, 233.
757
Schindler, Biographie von Ludwig van Beethoven, 242. (Although Schuppanzigh himself had died in 1830 it seems unlikely that this statement can have been entirely groundless,
since other members of the quartet were still alive and there would still have been many in 1840 who would have remembered their performances.)