A COSA SI RIFERISCONO LE INDICAZIONI DI TEMPO IN MOZART?

Mozart used to choose his words very carefully when it came to the tempo to be taken in performing his compositions; this can be seen in a number of specific, refined corrections in his autograph scores, as he attempted to find an increasingly precise indication. The problem perhaps lies in understa...

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Veröffentlicht in:Il saggiatore musicale 2006-01, Vol.13 (2), p.247-271
Hauptverfasser: Breidenstein, Helmut, Turturo, Ino, Beghelli, Marco
Format: Artikel
Sprache:ita
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Zusammenfassung:Mozart used to choose his words very carefully when it came to the tempo to be taken in performing his compositions; this can be seen in a number of specific, refined corrections in his autograph scores, as he attempted to find an increasingly precise indication. The problem perhaps lies in understanding what precisely these tempo-markings indicate. Usually they are understood to be related to a unit of tempo, indicated by the denominator of the metric fraction; but this ignores the fact that in the eighteenth century the fractional number was not considered to be a conducting indication expressing the beat of the measure. A combination of three factors defined tempo in Mozart's day. The first was the kind of measure, each with its own natural value. Measures in ⅜ (understood as "small") implied a faster beat than those in ¾, and these were considered faster than those in 3/2 (understood as "large"). A second factor took into account the fastest notes present in the score (excluding embellishments): thus, an Allegro that moves in sixteenth notes is inherently much slower than one that moves in eighth notes. The interaction of these two primary factors determined a kind of tempo giusto, which does not mean a generic moderato, but rather a tempo that would be consistent taking into account the two basic factors mentioned so far. It was at this point - and only at this point - that a third factor might intervene, the tempomarking indication, taken as a modifier of the tempo giusto determined by the other two factors. For these modifications, Mozart in his autographs makes use of 97 different verbal markings. Faced with such variety and precision, it would be logical to expect that in compositions which have identical markings Mozart intended the same tempo; however, modern performance conventions reveal widely differing choices. And the confusion only increases in the case of 'compound measures', where a single model is used to express a metrical reality that is instead twopronged and distinct ('simple' and properly-defined 'compound' measures). It is thus appropriate to disprove some lingering beliefs about presumed mathematical or biorhythmical relationships that putatively tie all of Mozart's tempos together under the umbrella of a single tactus, reducing the great variety of the composer's invention.
ISSN:1123-8615
2035-6706