To give the pupil the feeling for the correct tempo of a
composition is more difficult than to teach him to understand
rhythm. Our best musicians, whose merits deserve the fullest
acknowledgment, often fail here, making the tempo of a piece of
music either too slow or too quick, and so weakening its whole
effect. This happens especially with the old compositions which
preceded the introduction of the metronome. The old Italian
vocal compositions are in this respect treated the worst by our
musicians, who belong to the strictly classical school. The
character of these pieces is prevailingly sentimental, and the
_tempi_ were not so quick then as now. If a piece thus composed
in slow time is set, without reference to its sentiment, to the
quickest possible tempo, it becomes ordinary and vulgar in
character; the most beautiful adagio may in this way be degraded
to a street-ballad. The songs of our modern composers have to be
sung to a quicker tempo than that to which they are set, or they
are tedious and wearisome. This is particularly the case with
the compositions of Schubert, and the whole effect of his
beautiful songs is often ruined by a degree more or less too
rapid. Singing too slowly, or in false tempo, is now-a-days
a very prevalent fault. And yet the singer has in the words
a surer guide than is granted to the instrumental performer.
Therefore, by well considering these and getting them by heart
without the music, as if they were the outpouring of his own
feelings, he will be most likely to strike the correct tempo in
singing them. In this way many of our recent favorite songs gain
a somewhat fresher tempo than that at which they are usually
sung. The choice of the time, being dependent upon the taste
of the artist, requires special attention and study.
Although the tempo is usually indicated by some designation, as,
for example, allegro, adagio, &c., yet the allegro or adagio may
be given with different degrees of quickness, and the designations
still be perfectly correct. We have no precise designations for
the nicer degrees of tempo, and yet a very slight degree has an
influence upon the character of the piece. The metronome, by which
in instrumental music the tempo is defined, is only occasionally
used as a guide in vocal compositions, because the singer may be
guided by the words and by the sentiment which the words indicate.
The _tempi_ must be ascertained by a knowledge of the composers,
and by reference to the periods in which their compositions
first appeared. It would be an error to play an andante by
_Bach_ or _Haydn_ like one of _Chopin's_ or _Hiller's_, or sing
the allegro of an aria by _Pergolese_ or _Caraffa_ as quickly as
the allegro of one of _Meyerbeer's_ arias. But whether a piece
of music be light and ornamental in character, or heavy and
labored, weak or powerful, quiet or passionate, depends on
rhythm and tempo.