A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Tempo Rubato

TEMPO RUBATO (Ital., literally robbed or stolen time). This expression is used in two different senses; first, to denote the insertion of a short passage in duple time into a movement the prevailing rhythm of which is triple, or vice versa, the change being effected without altering the time-signature, by means of false accents, or accents falling on other than the ordinary places in the bar. Thus the rhythm of the following example is distinctly that of two in a bar, although the whole movement is 3-4 time.

Schumann, Novellette, Op. 21, No. 4.

2. In the other and more usual sense the term expresses the opposite of strict time, and indicates a style of performance in which some portion of the bar is executed at a quicker or slower tempo than the general rate of movement, the balance being restored by a corresponding slackening or quickening of the remainder. [Rubato.] Perhaps the most striking instances of the employment of tempo rubato are found in the rendering of Hungarian national melodies by native artists.

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