Conductors' tempo choices shed light over Beethoven's metronome

During most part of Western classical music history, tempo, the speed of music, was not specified, for it was considered obvious from musical context. Only in 1815, Maelzel patented the metronome. Beethoven immediately embraced it, so much as to add tempo marks to his already published eight symphon...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2020-12, Vol.15 (12), p.e0243616-e0243616
Main Authors: Martin-Castro, Almudena, Ucar, Iñaki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
19th century
Algorithms
Analysis
Auditory Perception
Beethoven, Ludwig van
Biology and Life Sciences
Composers
Conductors
Conductors (Music)
Context
Criticism and interpretation
Engineering and Technology
Famous Persons
Humans
Metronome
Metronomes
Music
Musicians & conductors
Physical Sciences
Practice
Research and Analysis Methods
Scale reading
Social Sciences
Tempo (Music)
Works
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Summary:During most part of Western classical music history, tempo, the speed of music, was not specified, for it was considered obvious from musical context. Only in 1815, Maelzel patented the metronome. Beethoven immediately embraced it, so much as to add tempo marks to his already published eight symphonies. However, these marks are still under dispute, as many musicians consider them too quick to be played and even unmusical, whereas others claim them as Bethoven's supposedly written will. In this work, we develop a methodology to extract and analyze the performed tempi from 36 complete symphonic recordings by different conductors. Our results show that conductor tempo choices reveal a systematic deviation from Beethoven's marks, which highlights the salience of "correct tempo" as a perceptive phenomenon shaped by cultural context. The hasty nature of these marks could be explained by the metronome's ambiguous scale reading point, which Beethoven probably misinterpreted.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0243616