It's so sad though, because you have Debussy, and he's supposed to sound effortless, and magical. Impressionism however seems to rely even a little more heavily on proper rhythm than other periods I have played, because it is dreamy sounding. Otherwise you lose momentum, and you get tangled up, and it sounds stilted. I am masterful at this.
It's very interesting though, because, (and I think Chopin was really the catalyze for this?) inside an almost rigid form you can break all the rules! It fills me with almost indescribable glee when I think about how hard rubato hit the musical world. It is a strange concept after all! I think it's like Augustine, and his 'love God and do whatever you want' principle; know the rhythm and you can do pretty well whatever you feel like. ;)
When I can play this song in about eighty years from now, I am going to severely rejoice. :)
On a less complainitory note, Couperin is just about done! It sounds pretty great! :)
1 comments:
That was a wonderful observation on why Impressionism requires stricter attention to beat! And about the "Love God and do anything you like" of the musical world, it's alot like language, where a universe of possibilities opens up under pen and ink. =] And rubato! Yes! What a shift from the mathematics-like precision of the Baroque era! The general rule though, with rubato, is to always have the rhythm in mind. If you speed up, somewhere along the line you should slow down in order to compensate. One should end rhythm-wise as if one had played it all without rubato. Every good thing becomes exponentially better when you can share it. =]
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