Chapter 8 - A Lesson with Hummel: Tempo Rubato

Tempo Flexibility

In his Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instruction of the Art of Playing the

Piano Forte of 1827, Hummel discriminates between a correct and beautiful style of

playing; the latter also referred to as expressive. Hummel further explains this style:

Expression relates immediately to the feelings, and denotes in the player a capacity and
facility of displaying by his performance, and urging to the heart of his audience,
whatever the Composer has addressed to the feelings in his production, and which the
performer must also feel after him; points which can be intimated only by general terms,
having but little precision in them, and which usually are of service to those only who
have these things already within them. If such be the case, it will follow, that expression
may be awakened indeed, but properly speaking, that it can neither be taught nor
acquired; it dwells within the soul itself, and must be transferred directly from it into the
performance …1

Such a beautifully evocative but frustratingly imprecise statement suggests that what is to

follow will be of little practical use, but a number of specific and useful

recommendations are provided.2 Hummel stresses the importance of singing to obtain

‘pure, correct, and critical musical feeling.’3 He further draws the reader’s attention to

the number of great composers who were singers in their youth including Mozart, both

Haydns and Gluck.

1
Johann Nepomuk Hummel, A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instruction of the Art of
Playing the Piano Forte (London: J. Boosey and Co., 1827), 3/2/1/39.
2
Such romanticised descriptions are not only found in period methods but also in contemporary methods.
The following extract is from Vol. 1 of Scott Tenant's Pumping Nylon. Unlike the Hummel method
however, it is not followed by any significant amount of specific interpretive advice.
'Music is the most powerful of all the arts. It instantly stirs up emotions, conjures visions, and offers
glimpses of other, higher dimensions. It arouses men to battle; kindles amorous passions in lovers; soothes
a baby to sleep; comforts us when we grieve. It engages our hearts and our minds, and can bring out the
best that we are. One can safely presume that not a single emotion, not any human or natural event, has
been left undocumented by music.' (pg. 94)
3
Hummel, A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instruction of the Art of Playing the Piano
Forte, 3/2/1/39.

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In his list of warnings he draws particular attention to players who attempt to create a

false sense of musicality by ill-considered use of two widely employed interpretive

techniques: ‘by a capricious dragging or slackening of the time, (tempo rubato),

introduced at every instant and to satiety;’ continuing, ‘by an overloaded decoration of

the passages of melody, until the air and character is often no longer perceptible.’4 He

cautions players not to fall into these tasteless excesses. In relation to changes of tempo

he further adds:

The Allegro requires a brilliancy, power, precision in delivery, and sparkling elasticity in
the fingers. Singing passages which occur in it … may be played with some little
relaxation as to time, in order to give them the necessary effect, but we must not deviate
too strikingly from the predominating movement, because, by so doing, the unity of the
whole will suffer, and the piece degenerate into a mere rhapsody.5

As noted in the ‘Lesson with Czerny’ such warnings when viewed from our

contemporary context are easily misinterpreted. It was shown that similar warnings by

Czerny still allowed a considerable degree of tempo flexibility to be applied. It became a

matter of course for writers of this period to censure playing that demonstrated an

excessive use of a specific expressive device so as to ensure that ‘pure, correct, and

critical musical feeling’ were pre-eminent in the mind of the performer. It becomes

evident that there was a tendency for such exaggerated styles of playing in performances

of the period. Wolfgang Mozart describes such a situation on hearing the daughter of the

Viennese piano maker Stein, where excessive tempo changes and many other musical

and technical ‘transgressions’ were accompanied in performance by exaggerated physical

movements.

4
Ibid., 3/2/1/40.
5
Ibid.

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 Anyone who sees and hears her play and can keep from laughing, must, like her father be
made of stone. For instead of sitting in the middle of the clavier, she sits right up opposite
the treble, as it gives her more chance of flopping about and making grimaces, She rolls
her eyes and smirks. When a passage is repeated, she plays it more slowly the second
time. If it has to be played a third time, then she plays it even more slowly.6

Mozart’s reaction to this vacuous, exhibitionist style of playing indicates he considered

the gross exaggeration of this expressive tempo flexibility unacceptable, not that he was

opposed to expressive use of tempo flexibility itself. In the example of Maria Stein’s

playing it is clear that an unusually exaggerated, albeit comical, style is being referred to.

Mozart’s description of Maria Stein’s playing also gives an idea of what leading

pedagogical figures such as Czerny and Hummel were possibly warning against and what

was clearly the practice of some performers.

As noted in a ‘Lesson with Czerny’, Czerny viewed tempo flexibility as one of the most

important interpretive devices available to the performer and prioritised it accordingly.

Even though not presented in the same manner by Hummel, it is still the first interpretive

device to be considered in the second section of his Art of Playing the Piano Forte, ‘On

Musical Performance in General’. The need to have the tempo changes integrated

holistically into the composition is stressed in a similar manner by both authors. Czerny

in 1839 in his Piano Forte School and Hummel in 1827 in his Piano Forte Course both

recommend the use of tempo flexibility as a powerful expressive device but with

warnings advocating its judicious use. Again, not necessarily inferring that the technique

should be unduly restricted, only that its use to excess, to the point where structural unity

may suffer, was to be avoided.

6
Quoted from: Sandra P Rosenblum, Performance Practice in Classic Piano Music (Bloomington
Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988; reprint, 1991), 23.

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In his piano method Hummel quotes an extended passage from the Allegro moderato of

his piano concerto in A minor Op. 85, highlighting specific moments where tempo

flexibility can be used to good effect. In the 96 bars of the Allegro moderato a wide range

of tempo modifications are recommended as outlined below.

Allegro moderato

Bars 1 – 6

Notated Instructions: From here, in a somewhat moderated degree of movement. (fig. 8 -

1)

Figure 8-1 - J.N. Hummel: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85; A Complete Theoretical
and Practical Course; 33/ 3 / 2 / 43

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Bars 9 & 10

Notated Instructions: with energy (fig. 8 - 2)

A rhythmic passage with dotted quavers / demisemiquaver patterns;

Figure 8-2 - J.N. Hummel: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85; A Complete Theoretical
and Practical Course 33/ 3 / 2 / 43

Bars 11 - 14

Notated Instructions: In an expressive and melodious style (fig. 8 - 3)

Slower moving passage with simple quaver accompaniment:

Figure 8-3 - J.N. Hummel: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85; A Complete Theoretical
and Practical Course 33/ 3 / 2 / 43

244
Bars 19 - 22

Notated Instructions: from here, something quicker and more marked (fig. 8 - 4).

An energetic semiquaver passage with added sforzandi;

Figure 8-4 - J.N. Hummel: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85; A Complete Theoretical
and Practical Course 33/ 3 / 2 / 43

Bars 33 - 35

Notated Instructions: somewhat slower and in a singing style (fig. 8 - 5).

A section that also contains freer notated groups including a group of ten semiquavers

and a group of twelve semiquavers. A simple quaver accompaniment is maintained

throughout.

Figure 8-5 - J.N. Hummel: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85; A Complete Theoretical
and Practical Course 33/ 3 / 2 / 44

245
Bars 46 - 49

Notated Instructions: somewhat accelerated (fig. 8 - 6).

A passage in running semiquavers;

Figure 8-6 - J.N. Hummel: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85; A Complete Theoretical
and Practical Course 33/ 3 / 2 / 45

Bars 65 - 69

Notated Instructions: the middle period somewhat slower and with tender feeling

(fig. 8 - 7)

As in the previous melodic section, a combination of slower moving figures and ornate

figuration, including a group of six, and a group of eleven semiquavers are used. This

section is prepared with two bars marked ritardando assai which itself is preceded with a

decrescendo to piano.

246
Figure 8-7 - J.N. Hummel: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85; A Complete Theoretical
and Practical Course 33/ 3 / 2 / 46

Bars 73 - 76

Notated Instructions: quicker and with spirit (fig. 84).

A section marked risoluto with a rhythmic march like figuration interspersed with

semiquaver arpeggio patterns:

Figure 8-8 - J.N. Hummel: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85; A Complete Theoretical
and Practical Course 33/ 3 / 2 / 46

247
Bars 90 -96

Notated Instructions: somewhat relaxing in the time, as preparatory to the cadence in the

principal passage, which must be played as far as the end of the solo with fire, and in

strict time (fig. 8 - 9).

Flowing semiquavers leading to a perfect cadence preparing the final four bars to be

played with fire.

Figure 8-9 - J.N. Hummel: Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 85; A Complete Theoretical
and Practical Course 33/ 3 / 2 / 47

248
Summary

Hummel stresses the importance of an expressive performance and the ability of the

performer to be able to communicate this with an audience. The use of tempo

modifications was an essential and effective way of achieving this interpretive outcome.

Hummel cautions against over use of this expressive device advising the performer not to

‘deviate too strikingly from the predominating movement,’7 but as we saw in ‘A Lesson with

Czerny’ even with such restraint tempo changes may well have exceeded what is now

common in contemporary practice. Even though Hummel does not give an exact

proportion as to how much the prevailing tempo can be changed the large number of

circumstances under which he suggests the expressive use of tempo modification can be

applied suggests that he used the device frequently.

Integration of tempo changes into the natural flow of the music was seen by Hummel as

an important interpretive skill. This would need to be done in such a way so as to make

them seem a natural, organic part of the musical dialogue. Dominant contemporary

practice would potentially view the number of tempo changes proposed in the example

above as intrusive and expressively excessive. A more limited use of tempo changes

such as at cadential points and phrase endings would characterise a contemporary

interpretation of such a work. If however the tempo changes Hummel suggests are

carefully integrated a cohesive end result can be achieved, and the ‘joints’ fading into the

7
Hummel, A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instruction of the Art of Playing the Piano
Forte, 3/2/1/40.

249
background, thus becoming ‘transparent’ ensuring that Hummel’s ‘unity of the whole’8

does not suffer.

8
Ibid.

250