# Does it annoy you when musicians seemingly ignore tempo directions?



## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

I was listening to a recording on Youtube of a Schoenberg string quartet, and the tempo markings clearly said "not to quickly" yet this part was played as rapidly as these musicians could play. It has always annoyed me when I find out what the real tempo is supposed to be, but that musicians play it like they're in a competition to see who can play it the fastest. I have no problem when I have no clue what the real tempo marking should be, but come on, at least learn what that bit of foreign language tempo means. These days it isn't that hard. What was weird about this particular recording was they seemed to understand the other tempo markings.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Manok said:


> I was listening to a recording on Youtube of a Schoenberg string quartet, and the tempo markings clearly said "not to quickly" yet this part was played as rapidly as these musicians could play. It has always annoyed me when I find out what the real tempo is supposed to be, but that musicians play it like they're in a competition to see who can play it the fastest. I have no problem when I have no clue what the real tempo marking should be, but come on, at least learn what that bit of foreign language tempo means. These days it isn't that hard. What was weird about this particular recording was they seemed to understand the other tempo markings.


Can I see the passage? The beat may be subdivided into many short notes.

Yes, it can annoy me when conductors and musicians ignore tempo indications, but sometimes even a perversely contrary interpretation can work.


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

It's the first movement of Schoenberg's Quartet No. 1, the opening is mostly 8th notes, and the tempo is "nicht zu rasch" Which according to my musicians German means not too quickly. I used the first complete version found on IMSLP.


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## Mahlerian (Nov 27, 2012)

Manok said:


> It's the first movement of Schoenberg's Quartet No. 1, the opening is mostly 8th notes, and the tempo is "nicht zu rasch" Which according to my musicians German means not too quickly. I used the first complete version found on IMSLP.


The version that seems to have proliferated on Youtube certainly does feel faster than the recordings I'm used to. You're correct about the meaning of the German heading, for sure.


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## Ginger (Jul 14, 2016)

Manok said:


> It's the first movement of Schoenberg's Quartet No. 1, the opening is mostly 8th notes, and the tempo is "nicht zu rasch" Which according to my musicians German means not too quickly. I used the first complete version found on IMSLP.


Correct translation! :cheers: And I agree: it can be very annoying when the tempo simply doesn't fit. Sometimes the tempo isn't indicated very exactly, then it's of course intetesting to see how different conductors handle it. But I once had to stand a very, very slow version of the overture from 'Meistersinger'. Not my taste.


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## Kjetil Heggelund (Jan 4, 2016)

I listened to a version on spotify that was "night zu rasch" and looked at the score. The viola plays 16th notes from the start and in the 4th measure there are triplets with 16th notes that can sound like fast. I usually like to try to play the way a composer writes and often it annoys me that other musicians don't. One thing I've heard from several people is that composers often want "too high" tempos...


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## Pat Fairlea (Dec 9, 2015)

I do prefer conductors who trust the composer to know what tempo they intended.

However, I was recently listening to an old recording of Holst's Planets Suite and thinking that some passages were being taken much too quickly. Turned out the conductor was...umm...Gustav Holst.


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## majlis (Jul 24, 2005)

Perfect example are the 24 caprices. Nearly all of them are marked on moderate to slow tempi. But nearly everybody plays them fast, like that showman of Alexander Markov. Look, first caprice is marked "andante", but almost all violinists play it fastest possible. That really **** me off.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

I'm the sort who tends to like the first recording I hear of a piece the best, whether it's right or not. If the tempo is taken faster or slower in that recording, I will generally dislike the correct version.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I'm glad to have Furtwangler's take on Beethoven's 9th. The adagio is absurdly slow and deeply moving. Sometimes the wrong tempo sheds new light on a piece.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

This happens all the time. Beethoven's metronome in his symphonies are a good example. Many interpretations ignore it, some even think his marks are wrong. Others who follow can accused of being a slave and lacking interpretation. So, if a particular performs ignores it or follows it, the key is whether it "works" for you. I tend to prefer early music performances that do follow very closely to practice of the past./


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

In the pop music world I know that bands tend to speed up a piece (or "song") after playing it for a few years, whether through boredom, trying to generate more excitement or just trying to fit everything into a gig I don't know. Could something similar happen in the classical music world? Surely not.

Either way I usually hate wrong tempos, a possible exception being the minuet from Mozart's Symphony 39. Most versions take it as a stately waltz and I can only stay awake picturing ships docking with a space station. But Harnoncourt takes at a brisk tempo that was an ear opener and turned me around to start appreciating Mozart. I have no idea what the correct tempo indications are.

[Edit: Actually Allegretto (scroll down to page 37) appears to be the only tempo marking, so maybe Harnoncourt is closer to correct than the mired in molasses renditions.]


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## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

Tempo directions are critical. Even if some of them seem to be inaccurate (like those numbers given by Beethoven), they do provide a lot of extra info than just indicate exactly how fast/slow the music should sound. Performers need overwhelming evidences/reasons if they decide to ignore such marks.


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## Pugg (Aug 8, 2014)

majlis said:


> Perfect example are the 24 caprices. Nearly all of them are marked on moderate to slow tempi. But nearly everybody plays them fast, like that showman of Alexander Markov. Look, first caprice is marked "andante", but almost all violinists play it fastest possible. That really **** me off.


Perlman is about the only one who know how to play them right.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> This happens all the time. Beethoven's metronome in his symphonies are a good example. Many interpretations ignore it, some even think his marks are wrong. Others who follow can accused of being a slave and lacking interpretation. So, if a particular performs ignores it or follows it, the key is whether it "works" for you. I tend to prefer early music performances that do follow very closely to practice of the past./


Beethoven might be a special case in some respects. He was the first important composer to use a metronome to set tempos for his works and, as such, was unaware of a strange tendency among composers to set overly fast tempos when the method is playing a work in ones head to a metronome. This effect was (and is) well-known-or widely believed in, at least-by later composers, and students are routinely warned against it. Beethoven did not have the benefit of this wisdom when he began to use a metronome in the late 18-teens.


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## majlis (Jul 24, 2005)

Only one I heard of the 24 who respect the marked tempi and played with calm and carefully, was Paul Zukovsky, on an old recording from the 70s.now complete OOP.


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