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Re: test piece tempi

On Mon, 23 Nov 1998, Andy Wooler wrote:

> John wrote:
> 
> 
> >wouldn't it be more fun :-)  if composers stopped putting metronome marks
> on
> >their music and just indicated the speed with an appropriate musical term
> >(andante allegro presto etc.

I agree strongly. UNLESS it were understood that the mm value were
approximate and not absolute, the impression is given that 182.5 (for
example) is the ONLY tempo at which the music is being correctly played.
Too many extra things can influence performance speeds...none the least of
which is the acoustics in which one is performing...to go at it from an
absolutist  viewpoint.

Your other issue about use of the English language for terms is quite
different, in my view...

> Even more radical, how about writing it in plain old english!

for plain old English speaking people, eh? (grin...no, my ax is NOT out)

> It was refreshing recently to get a chart which instead of using tenuto or
> the often ambiguous line

how, please is the line ambiguous, unless it has been USED wrongly?

>  over the top of the note actually said "stretch" -
> much clearer idea of what he wanted. (thanks for that Mark!)

Percy Grainger did this most times, and Aaron Copland sometimes. I always
curse when I see it because it is IMHO NOT precise at all! It just happens
to be our language, but that is not the end of the story.

The problem is not one of language but of convention. The world has used
Italian as a standard for so long that the meanings have become rather
universally accepted and have gotten a kind of precision of their own. One
does not have to _speak_ Italian to know what Presto means. At least in
general musical terms.  Recently, I had a score which told me to "expand". 
Expand what?  Dynamics, Tempo, or several other things which COULD have
been expanded at that point. I longed to see "Poco a poco piu sostenuto"
or, "poco a poco piu forte", or "... piu grandioso" ...THAT would have
made it clear.

Now, instead of Presto, in English...which word would you choose? My old
concise Webster lists about 10 possible alternatives for "fast". Which one
is to be the standard?

There is no English list of musical terms, only translations and
explanations of the conventionalized Italian. We would end up writing
sentences where, in Italian (because of conventionalized usage), one word
usually suffices with an occasional modifier or two thrown in, but only
sometimes. 

In short...no, English would not make it work easier for everyone,m only a
few. A musician must simply learn the terms along with learning what
different notes look like. We could decide to use other symbols there too,
but why bother? 

Learn the Italian list and things work well...of course, one does have to
_learn_ the list...and then the German, and then, come to think of it, the
French...and then...hmm, perhaps English WOULD work better...I just don't
really think so.  In this case we are really dealing with "but, it's
ALWAYS been this way!...and everyone KNOWS it this way" 

Best

Edouard Forner		 forner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx	  Macalester College
Music Department				 St. Paul, Minnesota 55105
fax (651) 696 6785     NOTE NEW AREA CODE!!!   phone/v-mail (651) 696 6189

"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up" - Paul Valery


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