The Short

400 TEMPO MODIFICATION
Ex. 11.8. (a) Viotti, Violin Concerto no. 19, in Baillot, L'Art du violon, 137–8; (b) Viotti, Violin Concerto no. 18, in
Baillot, L'Art du violon, 8
redistribution. The second movement of Haydn's String Quartet op. 54 no. 2 provides a particularly extended and
subtle example, showing how a practised exponent of the art might have applied a combination of rhythmic
redistribution and melodic embellishment to the whole of an adagio (Ex. 11.9.) Mozart's piano music contains several
revealing examples of the type of rubato he might have introduced into his own performances to vary the repetitions
of a melody in accordance with the principle referred to in an often-cited passage from his letter of 1777 where he
reported, ‘What these people cannot grasp is that in tempo rubato, in an adagio, the left hand should go on playing in
strict time. With them the left hand always follows suit.’ 792 The difference between the autograph and the Artaria
edition of the Piano Sonata K. 332 is particularly revealing, for in preparing the work for publication, Mozart seems to
have decided to include a stylized version of the kind of ornamentation and rubato that, in his own performance, he
might have introduced on repetitions of the theme (Ex. 11.10.) And the A minor Rondo K. 511 contains variants that
are likely to reflect his practice (Ex 11.11.) 793 The Cavatina from Beethoven's String Quartet op. 130 contains a shorter
792
Anderson, The Letters of Mozart, 340.
793
Rosenblum, Performance Practices, 379–80.