Tempo rubato

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Tempo rubato (Italian stolen time) is a musical term for slightly speeding up or slowing down the tempo of a piece at the discretion of the soloist or the conductor. It was used frequently in music of the Romantic Period, and is especially common in piano music. It also requires the use of altering the relationships among the written note values and the played ones.

Rubato, even when not notated, is often used liberally by many singers for added musical effect by singing at a slightly different tempo than that of the accompaniment. Frédéric Chopin is well known for having used rubato (see Chopin and Rubato).

Franz Schubert and Alexander Scriabin also used rubato to bring emotion to their pieces.

1 Example
2 See also
3 External Links
- 3.1 Articles

[edit] Example

For instance, if a piece of music had a quarter note followed by an eighth note, and the tempo was slowed down so the quarter note was as a sixteenth note tied to a quarter note, the eighth note would have to be sped up to a sixteenth note so as to make up for the lost time.

One perfect example of a piece including tempo rubato is Chopin's Heroic Polonaise.

Rubato is used to create contrast and a certain style and sound to a piece.