"Dozens of critics have explained why metronome marks are more problematic than early-music enthusiasts used to acknowledge. Composers, to begin with, often take their own music faster or slower than the speeds they imagined when setting numbers to the page. Changes of mood can lead anyone (including a composer) to different tempos at different times. Besides, what sounds right inside the composer's head often needs adjustment to work with real instruments in real places. ... Insisting that there is something essential about following a metronome mark imposes a meaningless limit on performance."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
Bernard D. Sherman, "Period Recordings Have Won the Right to Be Routine", The New York Times (29 August 1999), Section 2, p. 25
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Metronome
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
Metronome
33 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by Metronome →
Related Quotes
"Before a student can be persuaded to use a metronome, he or she has to know why it is important. The most obvious ans…"
"Harold Bauer once said that the most impressive performance of "Lohengrin" he ever heard was the time the Boston Symp…"
"The metronome is one of the greatest technique builders available to the teacher or the pupil."
"Because its beat is perfectly steady, the metronome is an excellent practice tool for musicians. Practicing with a me…"
"Often, the metronome by itself may not be enough to learn complex rhythms. However, its importance for all types of p…"
"I’ve got a metronome app on my phone because I often have riffs in my head that I think will go together but when I p…"
"The objection, sometimes heard, that using a metronome tends to make a player mechanical, is not founded on facts. In…"
"Everyone knows that after a piece has been thoroughly tested and stabilized with the metronome, the necessary rhythmi…"
"How shall a discriminating sense of rhythm and a correct regard for time-keeping be cultivated? Certainly not by the …"
"Paderewski plays the rhapsodies like improvisations – inspirations of the moment. It is the negation of the mechanica…"