Oxford University Press The Musical Quarterly

Freedom of Tempo in Schubert's Instrumental Music
Author(s): William S. Newman

Source: The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Oct., 1975), pp. 528-545
Published by: Oxford University Press
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FREEDOM OF TEMPO IN
SCHUBERT'S INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC
By WILLIAM S. NEWMAN
The Problem Defined and Delimited
HE problem discussed in this paper - "Freedom of Tempo in

Schubert's Instrumental Music"' - concerns not what particu-
lar tempo was actually intended by Schubert in any one piece or
section (which is a separate, challenging problem in itself). Rather
it concerns the still more elusive question of how much freedom,
how much elasticity of the pulse rate, was actually intended within
any selected tempo. That the freedom of tempo does present a prob-
lem in Schubert's music becomes self-evident almost every time two
different performances of the same work can be compared. Listen,
for example, to but the first sixteen measures of the String Quartet
in D Minor, D. 810 ("Der Tod und das MTidchen"), as recorded at
about the same initial tempo, first by the Vienna Philharmonic
Quartet, with almost no inflection of the pulse rate, and second by
the Hollywood String Quartet, with considerable freedom.2 Schu-
bert left no tempo indication in these measures beyond the initial
"Allegro" and a fermata over measure 14. Did he intend more free-
dom than he indicated?
To proceed within reasonable bounds in exploring freedom of

tempo it has seemed necessary to limit the problem to instrumental
music. Obviously, in vocal music the text itself introduces a fur-
ther, serious complication, if not a main determinant. But this
1 This article is a slight revision of a paper originally read (in German) at the
Symposium of the International Musicological Society on Performance Practices iln
Schubert's Music, in Vienna, January 28 through February 2, 1974. It is also expected
to appear in 1976 in the report of that symposium.
2 London CM 9384 Mono and Capitol P8359 recordings, respectively.
528
Tempo in Schubert's Instrumental Music 529
limitation need not exclude the early remarks to be quoted here

about tempo in Schubert's vocal music, which should apply with at
least equal force to his instrumental music.
Those early remarks plus one letter by Schubert himself con-
stitute all that seems to be available in the way of external docu-
mentary evidence. However, if the evidence amounts to much less
in quantity, it still amounts to more in its conclusiveness than can
be found regarding freedom of tempo in Beethoven's music. In any
case, the very paucity of external documents on tempo in Schubert
is itself one kind of evidence, for it suggests that tempo and its free-
dom did not create the problems for him that, for example, they
did for Beethoven. A little further light on freedom of tempo may
be found in the very few treatises that come close enough to Schubert
in time, place, and interests. But apart from these sources and in the
absence of any previous study that could be found here," the main
help comes - and should come, of course - from the composer's
own editing and from stylistic and structural considerations in the
music itself. Thanks to the relative neatness and consistency of his
composing, the evidence in the music itself is, like those early re-
marks on the vocal music, gratifyingly conclusive.
Tempo Changes Indicated in the Editing
We necessarily start with Schubert's own editing insofar as it

concerns tempo inflections, asking how reliably it indicates his in-
tentions, how abundantly it occurs in his instrumental music, what
choice of terms and signs it reveals, and where in the music these
terms and signs most often appear. With regard to reliability, we
get one significant answer, at least for Schubert's songs, from two
similar remarks by Leopold von Sonnleithner, an exact contempo-
rary and close friend as well as trustworthy observer of Schubert.
Writing in 1857 and 1860, Sonnleithner said,
I heard him [Schubert] accompany and rehearse his songs more than a hundred
times. Above all he always kept the most strict and even time, except in the few
cases where he expressly indicated in writing a ritardando, morendo, accelerando[,]
etc. .... Schubert always indicated exactly where he wanted or permitted . . .
3 The choice of tempo but not its freedom is discussed in the unpublished Ph.D.
dissertation by James Leland Taggart, "Franz Schubert's Piano Sonatas: A Study of
Performance Problems" (State University of Iowa, 1963).
530 The Musical Quarterly
any kind of freer delivery. But where he did not indicate this, he would not
tolerate the slightest arbitrariness or the least deviation in tempo.4
One may safely assume that these remarks apply quite as much to the
instrumental scores, where there are no texts to lure the unsuspect-
ing performer into unauthorized freedoms. However, the only bit of
documentary evidence is a letter Schubert wrote in his last year cau-
tioning his publisher that various editorial details in the Trio in
E-flat, Opus 100, must be "scrupulously observed" in a scheduled
performance.5
Otherwise, one may find at least circumstantial evidence for the
reliability of Schubert's editing in the care with which he seems to
have prepared the fair copies of his manuscripts, in his practice of
editing fully right from the start of his creative output, and in the
high degree of consistency to be found in his editing (much higher
than in Beethoven's editing). Among the infrequent examples of
Schubert's editing that seem inconsistent, I might cite a "ritard."
and an "a tempo" that introduce the subordinate theme in the first
movement of the Piano Sonata in E-flat, D. 568 (Opus. 122), but
fail to reappear when that theme reappears in the recapitulation. Even
in this instance, however, the seeming inconsistency may have been
intentional, in that the later approach may differ enough to have
made a tempo inflection no longer desirable to Schubert. (Compare
measures 37-42 with 181-187, Ex. la and Ex. lb.)6 An inconsistency
becomes more evident when the editing in any one place is incom-
plete, a rare instance being the puzzling inscription "sempre ritard."
in the first movement of the Piano Sonata in B, D. 575 (Opus 147),
measure 68, unaccompanied by any indications, before or after, as
to where the "ritard." is to start or end.
As to how abundantly Schubert's tempo editing occurs, a sweep-

ing answer might be, somewhat more than Mozart's, little more than
4 Otto Erich Deutsch, ed., Schubert: Memoirs by His Friends, trans. Rosamond Ley
and John Nowell (New York, 1958), pp. 116 and 337 For the original German, see
Deutsch, ed., Schubert: Die Erinnerungen seiner Freunde (Leipzig, 1957), pp. 98 and 292.
5 Otto Erich Deutsch, The Schubert Reader, trans. Eric Blom (New York, 1974),
p. 774. For the original German, see Deutsch, Schubert: Die Dokumente seines Lebens
(Kassel, 1964), p. 516. Schubert was reported rarely to speak of his own works (Deutsch,
Schubert: Memoirs, p. 185).
6 For a similar example suggesting similar conclusions, observe in the Piano Sonata
in A Minor, Opus 42 (D. 845), how "un poco ritard." and "a tempo" occur twice in
the opening theme but never again in any of its later entries, all treated somewhat
differently.
Ex. la
37
S3 2 1 3 2
l"==
,' ate po. -h ... .. F 1
1900...P
- : -
ym A P
( dolce)
:,Ir 1 , L " 6 -I, P i l i,,, ,0 i Fl: ; i F
?5 4 5 " 3 4
Ex. lb
i IFIF1It I"> L I_: -M r ' 1 t ''r D

f7i,-, tC~k !~ C +' "
186 dolce 4
I i- b 6 6
F 'I It'_I
S Vi " J j i lmll ! Il-1 l ! I L -# 1. v~
After the edition by Paul Mies for G. Henle Verlag of Franz Schubert: Klaviersonaten,
Vol. I, pp. 27 and 31 (with the kind permission of the publisher).
Haydn's, and much less than Beethoven's. It occurs more sparingly

than many performers themselves may realize, especially when they
think of Schubert as crossing the threshold into Romanticism. For
instance, there is not a single indication of a tempo inflection, in
spite of full editing of other details, throughout the "Great" Sym-
phony in C, D. 944, or the Piano Sonata in A, D. 664 (Opus 120), or
even the "Lebensstiirme," D. 947 (Opus 144), or the Fantasia in F
minor, D. 940 (Opus 103), for four hands. Nor is there anything
more than a fermata or two, or a change to a slower or a faster tempo

for a short section, throughout the Piano Sonata in A Minor, D. 784
(Opus 143), the "Grand Duo" in C major, D. 812, the "Wanderer"
Fantasia, D. 760, or the Fantasia in C for Piano and Violin, D. 934.
To be sure, indications for actual tempo inflections appear in a
large number of Schubert's instrumental works, but usually only in
isolated, widely separated positions. For example, in the String
Quintet in C, D. 956, there are to be found only the "Andante sos-
tenuto" over the "Trio" and the "Tempo I" to restore the "Presto"
of the "Scherzo," a "poco ritard." and "a tempo" in measures 244-
246 of the finale, and two abrupt increases of the tempo in the coda
of that finale. Somewhat more abundant indications occur in a very
few works, as in each movement of the String Quartet in G, D. 887,
and of the Piano Sonata in A Minor, D. 845 (Opus 42).
Although these last two works date from 1826 and 1825, respec-
tively, Schubert generally will be found to have indicated tempo
inflections more freely in his earlier works, later evidently tending
toward greater restraint or toward the greater security of notating
rather than indicating the inflections (as will be mentioned pres-
ently). This generalization seems to apply equally to his songs, even
though they, of course, reveal more frequent indications for inflec-
tions than do his instrumental works. Thus, in Die junge Nonne,
D. 828, which dates from 1825, not one indication of a tempo in-
flection occurs, despite the intense emotional contrasts it presents
(or perhaps because the nun brings those contrasts under such firm
inner control). One might also suppose that the frequency of Schu-
bert's indications for tempo inflections in the instrumental music
would relate somewhat to the length, scoring, and tempo of any one
piece - in other words, that the indications might appear more often
in a short piece, where there is less of a problem of overall con-
tinuity; or in a solo or small ensemble, where there is less of a prob-
lem of coordination; or in a slow piece, where there are more likely
to be expressive justifications. However, in fact, the indications do
not occur predictably enough to justify any of these further three
generalizations.
Not only did Schubert indicate relatively few tempo inflections
in his instrumental music, but he confined his editing of that sort
- again, as compared with Beethoven's - to a relatively small choice
of terms and signs. The only terms he used consistently are "ritard."
and "a tempo," and the only sign is the fermata. That his fermata
may presuppose a "ritard." is suggested by an occasional instance of
an "a tempo" that follows it.7 A few terms that he used singly here
and there may or may not involve a slowing of the tempo, depend-
ing in each instance on the context. Thus, since an "a tempo" fol-
lows soon after, a slowing down of the tempo can be assumed when
"morendo" occurs in the "Adagio" (measure 11) of the Octet in F,
D. 803 (Ex. 2), or even when "dimin." occurs in the "Andante" (meas-
Ex. 2 -morendo
Z f> p deres1
p decresc
p decresc PP
f p decresc PP morendo
PP
a tempo
After the edition of Arnold Feil for BAirenreiter Verlag in Franz Schubert: Neue
Ausgabe sdmtlicher Werke, Series VI, Vol. I, p. 61
(with the kind permission of the publisher).
7 E. g., at measure 53 in the "Scherzo" of the Piano Trio in B-flat, Opus 99

(D. 898).
ure 78) of the Piano Sonata in G, D. 894 (Opus 78). But without a
subsequent "a tempo," the slowing down becomes a moot question,
especially with terms that are ambiguous at best, like "tenuto" under
staccato chords in the "Scherzo" (measure 19) of the Sonata for Piano
and Violin in A, D. 574 (Ex. 3); or "sostenuto" under the lyrical
theme that enters in the finale (measure 324) of the String Quartet in
G, D. 887; or "ben marcato" over the theme consisting mostly of
dotted half-notes in that same finale.
Ex. 3
17 -
st . I ?I "r ?- L ' " : " "
lip
9, Eli ,
P Eelt e : c - -
After the edition of Helmut Wirth for Biirenreiter Verlag in
Franz Schubert: Neue Ausgabe samtlicher Werke, Series VI, Vol. VIII, p. 55
Schubert's use of terms indicating an inflection to the faster side

of the tempo is even less frequent. Two examples are "un poco
accel.," followed by "a tempo," in the slow movement (measures
181-184) of the Piano Sonata in D, D. 850 (Opus 53), and "stringendo,"
followed by "decresc.," in the first movement (measures 264-270) of
the String Quartet in G. Further terms for a decrease or an increase
of the tempo occur only when Schubert indicated a temporary or
more lasting change rather than an inflection, as with the term "un
poco pii lento" in both final, short sections of the piano sonatas in
D and in G, D. 850 and D. 894 (Opus 53 and Opus 78), or as with
the progressive terms "pin allegro" and "pin presto" in the final two
sections of the String Quartet in C, D. 956. There is in Schubert's
songs, of course, a wider, more particularized choice of tempo terms,
usually in German rather than Italian. For example, in the songs
one finds "rallentando," "immer leiser und langsamer," "etwas be-
wegt," and "geschwinder"; one also finds broader terms that may
include tempo connotations, like "feierlich," "majestaitisch," "klag-
end," and "aingstlich," and one finds numerous phrases marked
"Recit.," followed by "a tempo," "wie oben," or "im Takte."8
8 All of these and further, similar terms may be found, among other instances, in
Volume VII of the lieder in the Neue Schubert-Ausgabe, Series 4. A rare instance of a
It is significant that neither recitative passages nor cadenzas occur

in Schubert's instrumental music, whereas numerous instances of each
occur in Beethoven's. Nor does the word "rubato," in either the
earlier or the later meaning, appear in the primary literature on
Schubert as it does in that on Beethoven. On the other hand, it is
equally significant to the present investigation that in none of his
instrumental music did Schubert have recourse to the metronome, in
spite of the notoriety then being given to that device in Vienna by
Beethoven and Maelzel, and in the treatises by practitioners like
Hummel." Schubert did use the metronome between 1814 and 1823
in about twenty songs, one choral work, and one opera.'0 But if
these and Beethoven's limited uses sprang partly from a need to set
limits on the freedom, as well as the choice, of tempo, then, con-
versely, Schubert's apparent disinclination to use the metronome
in any of his instrumental music might be taken as at least indirect
evidence that he contemplated no such freedom in that music.
Lastly with regard to Schubert's own editing, it is important to
note where his indications for tempo changes occur. Most of them
simply help to punctuate structural divisions, small or large. At the
local level of phrases and periods, such changes belong in this discus-
sion of "freedom of tempo." An example is the typical pairing of
"ritard." and "a tempo" that marks a return to the main theme
(measures 378-383) in the Impromptu in F Minor, D. 935/4 (Opus
142, No. 4). A more subtle example is the pairing of "morendo" and
"a tempo" over the ending of one phrase and its exact repetition as
the start of the new phrase, which process takes place at the first
return to the main theme in the slow second movement (measures
11-14) of the Octet in F, D. 803 (Ex. 2). At the broader level of sec-
tions or parts such changes go beyond this discussion into overall
questions of structural contrasts. Typical examples are the speeding
up of the tempo in the coda of a fast movement, as happens near the
German indication for a tempo inflection in the instrumental music is "mit Verschieb-
ung" in the slowed "Trio" of the "Scherzo" in the Piano Sonata in A Minor, D. 845,
inserted here apparently only as the gratuitous equivalent of "Un poco piu lento"
over the start of the "Trio."
9 Hummel's table of thirty-seven metronome tempos in the music of eleven con-

temporaries, in his Anweisung zum Piano-Forte-Spiel (Vienna, 1828), p. 457, includes
no example from Schubert.
10 D. 118, 121, 138, 162b, 216, 224, 225, 226, 257, 328, 367, 368, 504, 514, 515, 531,
541, 542, 685, 770; 730; 732.
end of the String Quartet in D Minor, D. 810 ("Der Tod und das
Maidchen"), or the slowing of the "Trio" in a "Scherzo," which
Schubert indicated specifically and frequently enough to suggest
that he wanted no slowing of the trio when he did not indicate it.
Although our same Octet in F ends with an "accelerando" that
seems to continue for twenty-one measures, I find no counterpart in
Schubert's instrumental music to the "accelerando" and "ritardando"
that help to define a final, broad rise and fall in the structure of his
Gretchen am Spinnrade.
Most pertinent to freedom of tempo, yet least frequent in
Schubert's instrumental editing, are his few indications for tempo
inflections that do not punctuate structural divisions but rather
serve to point up expressive moments within phrases, especially in
the harmony or melody. Thus, a "ritard." serves to point up the
gentle chromatic harmony (measures 80-82) within the first con-
sequent phrase, which ends "a tempo," in the "Trio" of the "Scherzo"
in the String Quartet in D Minor (Ex. 4). On the other hand, the
indication "un poco accel." marks the climactic reiteration on the
subtonic harmony (measures 181-183) during an extended phrase
that resumes "a tempo" near the end of the second movement in
the Piano Sonata in D, D. 850 (Opus 53). A "ritard." that points up
a slight melodic change (measure 12) occurs within the second period
of that same movement, again resuming "a tempo."
Ex. 4 80
.Z" .4 .7. ,.,,,te7M?
TI
Au o p
u
After the miniature score edition of Ernst Eulenberg.
The Influence of Style and Structure
Having explored Schubert's own editing, we may turn now to

those styles and structures of his instrumental music that might shed
further light on freedom of tempo. A starting point is found in
certain aspects of his artistic and temperamental disposition that are
reported by his contemporaries. Thus, Sonnleithner recalled that

With Schubert, especially, the true expression, the deepest feeling is already in-
herent in the melody as such, and is admirably enhanced by the accompaniment.
Everything that hinders the flow of the melody and disturbs the evenly flowing
accompaniment is, therefore, exactly contrary to the composer's intention and
destroys the musical effect. . . . [He] demanded above all that his songs should
not so much be declaimed as sung flowingly . . and that by this means the
musical idea should be displayed in its purity.11
More broadly, Anton Schindler, who saw himself as a kind of link

between Schubert and Beethoven, recalled that
in Schubert's life there were no mountains and no valleys, only well-trodden

plains in which he moved in ever constant rhythm. His disposition, too, was
unruffled, like the surface of a mirror, and could only with difficulty be disturbed
by external things.... .12
These views tally with those more general aspects of Schubert's out-
look and personality that could well have predisposed him toward
steadiness of tempo. Thus, one remembers his predominantly Classic
orientation;13 his special reverence for Mozart's and Beethoven's
music;14 his innate straightforwardness, reticence, conservatism,
equanimity, and stubbornness, even among friends;15 and, to quote
another contemporary, his "genius for divine creation, unimpaired
by the passions of an eagerly burning sensuality."16 One also re-
members the descriptions of Schubert's own performing as non-
virtuosic yet "clear," "neat," and "fluent," with the help of that
"fleshy," "quiet" type of hand that so often promotes keyboard
facility.17
As for more tangible style traits, Schubert's accompaniments, fast
or slow, tend to favor steadiness of tempo when, as often happens,
they consist of repeated figures that define each beat or its subdivi-
11 Deutsch, Schubert: Memoirs, pp. 116 and 337. For the original German, see
Deutsch, Schubert: Die Erinnerungen, pp. 98 and 291.
12 Deutsch, Schubert: Memoirs, p. 317. For the original German, see Deutsch,
Schubert: Die Erinnerungen, p. 274.
13 Cf. Walther Vetter, "Schuberts Klassizittit," in Die Musikforschung, VII (1955),
23-39.
14 Cf. Deutsch, The Schubert Reader, p. 60, 228, 255, and 877; Deutsch, Schubert:
Memoirs, pp. 121, 126-27, 180, 299, 312, and 329.
15 Cf. Deutsch, The Schubert Reader, pp. 856, 862, 876-78, and 890-92.
16 Anton Ottenwalt, as quoted in Deutsch, The Schubert Reader, p. 476 (see also
p. 862), and in Deutsch, Schubert: Die Dokumente, p. 326.
17 Deutsch, Schubert: Memoirs, pp. 121, 146, 176, and 180.
sions. Recall, for example, the characteristic triplet subdivisions in

the last section of the second movement in the Piano Quintet in
A, D. 667 ("Forellen"). Still more often the accompaniment consists
of a recurring rhythmic pattern that comprehends two or more beats.
As Sonnleithner also remarked, always with primary reference to
Schubert's songs, even if the steadiness of tempo
were not demonstrable through the unanimous testimony of his contemporaries,

no competent person could fail to recognize it from the nature of his accompany-
ing figures. A trotting or galloping horse permits of no deviation from strict time;
a turning spinningwheel . . . [cannot] move fast at one moment and slowly the
next and alternate like this from bar to bar; . .. when the march of the crusaders
is heard in the distance and the monk joins his meditations to these sounds, he
must continue to sing absolutely strictly in time; the march does not conform to his
paroxysms of sentimental hesitation.18
Sonnleithner's last instance rightly suggests that Schubert's many in-

strumental dances and marches contain the readiest examples of such
patterns in his instrumental music. The Liindler, Walzer, Tiinze,
ecossaises, marches caracteristiques, polonaises, minuets, and other
types all have in common the pleasantly continuous flow of their
patterns, quite in keeping with those touches of Biedermeier art
and Gemiitlichkeit that have been identified in Schubert's music.19
To be sure, these or similar patterns are also found, with the same
effect on the tempo, in many of Schubert's instrumental pieces that
do not have dance titles - for example, in the "Allegro vivace"
of the Octet in F, D. 803.20 Moreover, such patterns operate ex-
tensively, with an almost fatalistic steadfastness, in his more broadly
projected, often more seriously purposed movements. Familiar ex-
amples may be cited near the opening of the "Unfinished" Symphony
and the opening of the "Adagio" in the String Quintet in C, D. 956
(Ex. 5).
When difficulties arise occasionally that threaten to interrupt the
18 Ibid., p. 337. For the original German, see Deutsch, Schubert: Die Erinnerungen,
p. 292.
19 Cf. Walther Vetter, Der Klassiker Schubert, 2 vols. (Leipzig, 1953), I, 251, II, 138,
et passim. It was presumably the persistent pattern that caused a reviewer in 1827 to
speak of "undue uniformity" in Schubert's Six Polonaises for Piano Duet, D. 824
(Deutsch, The Schubert Reader, pp. 627-28).
20 Cf. Arnold Feil, "Zur Rhythmik Schuberts," in Bericht iiber den internationalen
musikwissenschaftlichen Kongress Kassel 1962 (Kassel, 1963), pp. 198-200.
Ex. 5
Adagio
O.. -. ' . J , q i I X , J. J.- 1.- . 1I. ,

FP
----1 -----------
pp espressivo
pp espressivo
pp (sprssl vo
P .
After the edition of Martin Chusid for Birenreiter Verlag in

Franz Schubert: Neue Ausgabe siimtlicher Werke, Series VI, Vol. II, p. 47
flow, they are less likely to be quasi-Beethovenian challenges to tradi-

tion and practicality than typically Schubertian blind spots in the
command of technical idioms. I would include as "blind spots," not
intended to slow the tempo, such passages as the theme suddenly con-
verted to octaves at the end of the Piano Sonata in A Minor, D. 784;
or the exposed cello entry, with its awkward string-crossing, fingering,
and bowing, near the start (measures 13-14) of the Piano Trio in
B-flat, D. 898.
Among structural considerations that favor steadiness of tempo,
one is Schubert's propensity for superimposing two main thematic
elements during the working-out of a piece, making a uniform tempo
unavoidable at least at that moment. See, for instance, the super-
imposition of the triplet and dotted elements during the opening
movement (measures 152-160) of the String Quartet in D Minor,
D. 810 (Ex. 6). Another consideration is Schubert's general ad-
herence in his variation forms to the traditional principle of a
uniform beat from one variation to the next, with increased or de-
creased motion achieved not by changes of tempo but by shorter or
longer note values (as in the second movement of the same Quartet
in D Minor).21 And a third consideration is the clear need for a
21 Cf. the contemporary review of Schubert's Variations in C for Piano Duet,

D. 908, in Deutsch, The Schubert Reader, pp. 732-34.
Ex. 6
;JSZ
S 6 li- #:P:PC
L 4F z 1 1 1 0TSC
.~ ' crese.
" ' ' . ... . ... . " I . ..... ... I . i , , , . i .......
e.
......I __m '

,, . . .I. . .,,
It - IiI- . . .., '- .........4
--1 4-- i-I ....r.
IA - .. .-
-
7" ...b ,,I ' -. .- .T " ..I. l ',,l' =' -- "n . .. ,,I . f l~,.'.PII
After the miniature score edition of Ernst Eulenberg.
steady beat as one main unifier of those complex hierarchic designs

by which Schubert achieves his "himmlischer Linge" (as in the extra
long finale, with not a single indication of tempo inflections, in the
Piano Sonata in C Minor, D. 958).22
With all these presumptive or circumstantial evidences that favor

steadiness of tempo, one might well ask whether there are not also
some counter evidences in Schubert's instrumental music. For ex-
ample, are there not moments of drama, fantasy, or rumination that
favor freedom of tempo? As we have been reminded by his con-
temporaries, Schubert, unlike Beethoven, or Schumann and Liszt
after him, was not ordinarily a volatile or brooding individual, but
rather one who, at least outwardly, lived and moved circumspectly
yet unperturbedly. To cite Sonnleithner again, most performers (of
Schubert's songs) are seeking for the "dramatic." Accordingly,
22 Cf. William S. Newman, The Sonata since Beethoven (New York, 1972), pp.
162-63.
there is as much declamation as possible, sometimes whispered, sometimes with

passionate outbursts, with retarding of the tempo, etc. . . . But Schubert never
allowed violent expression in performance.23
Yet dramatic moments do abound in his music, instrumental as

well as vocal. The important difference with Schubert - a distinc-
tion basic to the present discussion - is that he projects those
moments generally by means other than tempo fluctuation. Much
of the instrumental drama is created by surprise, and most of the
surprise is created by sudden harmonic or tonal change, often ac-
companied by a sudden dynamic contrast. Schubert's way of pro-
jecting such a dramatic moment is either to keep going right through
it, as during the development section (measures 130-145) in the
opening movement of the "Grand Duo" in C, D. 812; or to pause
on it, as at the peak on the fortissimo chord of C-sharp minor
(measures 30-35) during the exposition of that same work.
When Schubert's music keeps going steadily right through the
dramatic moment, it is like a train that keeps going, against the
steady pattern of the track ties, right through a tunnel, a town, or
other sudden change of scenery. A superb example, much too long
to use as an illustration here, is the finale of the Piano Trio in E-flat,
in which Schubert himself stressed the need for "a continual uni-
formity of tempo at the changes of the time signature."24 When his
music pauses at the dramatic moment it is like an abrupt temporary
stop by the train at one of those scenic changes. Such a pause brings
us to what is regarded in the present discussion as Schubert's main
alternative to freedom of tempo. It is an extension rather than an
inflection of the beat. Put differently, the pause enables him to write
out the freedom of tempo rather than to entrust it to the performer.
Like Ravel, a century later, he may have preferred that the performer
not "interpret" his music. Although Schubert did not indulge in
quite the hemiola play and more subtle changes of note values that
Brahms was to indulge in later,25 he did frequently create the effect
23 Deutsch, Schubert: Memoirs, p. 116 (I do not take Louis Schldsser's mention of

"dramatic recitations" [p. 330] to contradict Sonnleithner). For the original German,
see Deutsch, Die Erinnerungen, p. 98.
24 Deutsch, The Schubert Reader, p. 774. For the original German, see Deutsch,
Schubert: Die Dokumente, p. 516.
25 E. g., cf. Brahms's Intermezzo in E, Opus 116, No. 4, mm. 29-33, or his Inter-
mezzo in E Minor, Opus 119, No. 2, mm. 67-71. A rare instance of hemiola treatment
by Schubert occurs in the Piano Sonata in A Minor, D. 537, first mvt., mm. 96-120.
of slowing down or speeding up through rests, fermatas, and a length-

ening or shortening of notes. Thus, near the end of the opening
movement in the Piano Sonata in A Minor, D. 784 (Ex. 7) the
motion of the persistent trochaic pattern is slowed twice by a one-
measure rest and twice by augmentation, then alternately speeded
up and slowed down by diminution and augmentation in one more
climax, and slowed to a close with both an augmentation and double
augmentation. One should also note in this example that the pauses
and changes of note values make the phrases unsquare or irregular,
and that Schubert's frequently unsquare phrases provide in them-
selves another alternative to freedom of tempo.
Some Conclusions
The primary conclusions reached in the present investigation

are (1) that Schubert generally intended the tempos to flow on
steadily throughout his instrumental music except where he supplied
indications for freedoms, (2) that these indications are relatively
few in both kind and number, (3) that the indications occur mainly
as punctuation at broad or local structural divisions, and (4) that in
place of more actual inflections of the beat Schubert chose to write
in his "freedoms of tempo" by inserting rests, by augmenting or
diminishing note values, and by introducing unsquare phrases. If
there is anything surprising about these conclusions, it is chiefly in
the preponderance of the evidence that supports them, notwith-
standing the elusiveness of the term "freedom of tempo." This
evidence is found not only in Schubert's own editing, but also in
his artistic disposition, in all of the few pertinent documents that
could be discovered here, and in several aspects of the styles and
structures of his music.
But while we are emphasizing the steadiness of tempo that

Schubert apparently preferred, we must not rigidify his art by assum-
ing, as Sonnleithner put it, "that Schubert wanted to hear his songs
ground out merely mechanically. An accurate, purely musical per-
formance in no way excludes feeling and sensitivity ... ." 26 We get
indications of the probable limits of Schubert's freedoms in the two
main piano treatises that came closest to his time, milieu, and artistic
26 Deutsch, Schubert: Memoirs, p. 338. For the original German, see Deutsch,
Schubert: Die Erinnerungen, p. 292.
Ex. 7
246 3
> > > decrese.

3
254
I A I~ I rm
" ,h
lrL 1 44 6410
I L I k . I- I-- --I k
v l .-64- 9 ..4 6..4
269
: , i ? - , LM"I' TIM I ? 'I - V 44' , t INt !

i VCI
- 1I.1 ' 1F,1
"-mI 'Tt ,d
-I- " I l'L ILAI

I II ./1. /. ITi
-- l pr I m"! ?
I . ? - ?
Ii ,Fi '.a A 'I
,PP..::,r:.
m! . .
After the edition by Paul Mies for G. Henle Verlag of

Franz Schubert: Klaviersonaten, Vol. I, pp. 90-91
disposition. Thus, in 1828 or earlier, Hummel wrote that any
relaxation of the time in single bars, and in short passages of melody, in pleasing
and intermediate ideas, must take place almost imperceptibly, and not be carried
to excess, so that the difference between the remission in the time, and the
natural progress of the movement may never appear too striking with regard
to the original measure.27
About a decade later, Czerny echoed Hummel with the more

categorical statement that
Before everything else, we must consider it as a rule, always to play each piece
from beginning to end, without the least deviation or uncertainty, in the time
prescribed by the Author, and first fixed upon by the Player. But without injury
to this maxim, there occur almost in every line some notes or passages, where
a small and often almost imperceptible relaxation or acceleration of the movement
is necessary to embellish the expression and increase the interest.28
As regards freedom of tempo, I would view Schubert as a suc-

cessor of Mozart, a complement of Beethoven, and a predecessor of
both Bruckner and Brahms. When Schumann characterized Schubert
as the feminine counterpart of Beethoven, he seems to have been
thinking as much of Schubert's innate steadiness as any other trait.29
That steadiness may indeed mark one of the sharpest points of con-
trast to Beethoven, whose freedoms of tempo, especially in his later
years, are well attested.30 And it clearly separates Schubert from a
subsequent composer like Liszt, who wrote a half century later, in
reference to his editing of piano music by Schubert and Weber,
27 Johann Nepomuk Hummel, Art of Playing the Piano Forte, 4 vols. in one
(London, [1829]), III, 47. For the original German, see Hummel, Anweisung zum
Piano-Forte-Spiel (Vienna, 1828), p. 433.
28 Carl Czerny, Complete Theoretical and Practical Piano Forte School, Opus 500,
3 vols. in one (London, 1839?), III, 31.
29 Martin Kreisig, ed., Gesammelte Schriften . . von Robert Schumann, 5th ed.,
2 vols. (Leipzig, 1914), I, 330.
3o Cf. William S. Newman, Performance Practices in Beethoven's Piano Sonatas
(New York, 1971), pp. 53-55. Among further evidences, cf. Beethoven's well-known
inscriptions over the autograph of his song of 1817, Nord oder Sud (WoO 148): "100
according to Mdilzel, but this applies only to the first measures, for feeling also has its
tempo, which however cannot be expressed entirely at this speed (i. e., 100)," as quoted
in Adolf Bernhard Marx, Anleitung zum Vortrag Beethovenscher Klavierwerke, 3rd
ed. (Berlin, 1898), p. 69; also, Mendelssohn's report in 1831 of Dorothea von Ertmann's
playing of Beethoven, which had suited Beethoven himself as much as any pianist's
playing, but of which Mendelssohn said, "she sometimes rather exaggerates the ex-
pression dwelling too long on one passage, and then hurrying the next," as extracted
from Mendelssohn's letter to his family dated July 14, 1831, in Milan.
. . the rubato may be left to the taste and momentary feeling of gifted players.
A metronomical performance is certainly tiresome and nonsensical; time and
rhythm must be adapted to and identified with the melody, the harmony, the
accent and the poetry .... But how indicate all this? I shudder at the thought of
it.31
As our evidence, I hope, has shown, Schubert might have shud-

dered too, but for quite opposite reasons!
31 From Liszt's letter of Jan. 10, 1870, written in Villa d'Este to Sigmund Lebert.

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Freedom of Tempo in Schubert's Instrumental Music

Author(s): William S. Newman

The Problem Defined and Delimited

HE problem discussed in this paper - "Freedom of Tempo in

To proceed within reasonable bounds in exploring freedom of

limitation need not exclude the early remarks to be quoted here

Tempo Changes Indicated in the Editing

We necessarily start with Schubert's own editing insofar as it

As to how abundantly Schubert's tempo editing occurs, a sweep-

,' ate po. -h ... .. F 1

i IFIF1It I"> L I_: -M r ' 1 t ''r D

S Vi " J j i lmll ! Il-1 l ! I L -# 1. v~

Haydn's, and much less than Beethoven's. It occurs more sparingly

more than a fermata or two, or a change to a slower or a faster tempo

7 E. g., at measure 53 in the "Scherzo" of the Piano Trio in B-flat, Opus 99

st . I ?I "r ?- L ' " : " "

Schubert's use of terms indicating an inflection to the faster side

It is significant that neither recitative passages nor cadenzas occur

9 Hummel's table of thirty-seven metronome tempos in the music of eleven con-

After the miniature score edition of Ernst Eulenberg.

The Influence of Style and Structure

Having explored Schubert's own editing, we may turn now to

reported by his contemporaries. Thus, Sonnleithner recalled that

More broadly, Anton Schindler, who saw himself as a kind of link

in Schubert's life there were no mountains and no valleys, only well-trodden

sions. Recall, for example, the characteristic triplet subdivisions in

were not demonstrable through the unanimous testimony of his contemporaries,

Sonnleithner's last instance rightly suggests that Schubert's many in-

O.. -. ' . J , q i I X , J. J.- 1.- . 1I. ,

After the edition of Martin Chusid for Birenreiter Verlag in

flow, they are less likely to be quasi-Beethovenian challenges to tradi-

21 Cf. the contemporary review of Schubert's Variations in C for Piano Duet,

" ' ' . ... . ... . " I . ..... ... I . i , , , . i .......

......I __m '

After the miniature score edition of Ernst Eulenberg.

steady beat as one main unifier of those complex hierarchic designs

With all these presumptive or circumstantial evidences that favor

there is as much declamation as possible, sometimes whispered, sometimes with

Yet dramatic moments do abound in his music, instrumental as

23 Deutsch, Schubert: Memoirs, p. 116 (I do not take Louis Schldsser's mention of

of slowing down or speeding up through rests, fermatas, and a length-

The primary conclusions reached in the present investigation

But while we are emphasizing the steadiness of tempo that

> > > decrese.

: , i ? - , LM"I' TIM I ? 'I - V 44' , t INt !

- 1I.1 ' 1F,1

-I- " I l'L ILAI

After the edition by Paul Mies for G. Henle Verlag of

disposition. Thus, in 1828 or earlier, Hummel wrote that any

About a decade later, Czerny echoed Hummel with the more

As regards freedom of tempo, I would view Schubert as a suc-

As our evidence, I hope, has shown, Schubert might have shud-

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