How Slow Is Fast?

When a performer has worked up a piece of music almost to concert readiness, he faces one final decision: He must choose the tempo. His choice is utterly personal, a strange circumstance in an art whose very being is temporal. Yet it is true that until the twentieth century most composers have been content to issue only the most roundabout indications of tempo. And the further back we go, the more we’re in the dark about such matters. The question of how fast a piece of music should be taken is up for discussion at all times, and the range of choice is marvelous. I have selected two recent recordings of Bach’s organ music as a case in point: Anthony Newman’s single disc on Columbia (MS 7421), and Lionel Rogg’s three-volume, nine-record Epic set (B3C 166, 169, 173).

I would like you to consider in particular the Newman and Rogg performances of the Toccata and Fugue in F Major (BWV 540). The difference in tempo is startling. Before getting into details, I should explain that a piece of music falls apart at all speeds below a certain minimum playing speed; once you have got it to that minimum speed where it hangs together (“breathes,” “moves”), then any increase in tempo, no matter how small, has the effect of altering the real substance of the music. In practice, a 10 per cent increase in speed will work a revolution in the sound and feeling of the performance.

WR

About the Author

William F. Rickenbacker

Featured Tags

Manage following

Music

Classical Music

When a performer has worked up a piece of music almost to concert readiness, he faces one final decision: He must choose the tempo. His choice is utterly personal, a strange circumstance in an art whose very being is temporal. Yet it is true that until the twentieth century most composers have been content to issue only the most roundabout indications of tempo. And the further back we go, the more we’re in the dark about such matters. The question of how fast a piece of music should be taken is up for discussion at all times, and the range of choice is marvelous. I have selected two recent recordings of Bach’s organ music as a case in point: Anthony Newman’s single disc on Columbia (MS 7421), and Lionel Rogg’s three-volume, nine-record Epic set (B3C 166, 169, 173).

I would like you to consider in particular the Newman and Rogg performances of the Toccata and Fugue in F Major (BWV 540). The difference in tempo is startling. Before getting into details, I should explain that a piece of music falls apart at all speeds below a certain minimum playing speed; once you have got it to that minimum speed where it hangs together (“breathes,” “moves”), then any increase in tempo, no matter how small, has the effect of altering the real substance of the music. In practice, a 10 per cent increase in speed will work a revolution in the sound and feeling of the performance.