I sometimes struggle with the desire to warp the tempo of a lute piece, to accentuate a beautiful or pivotal phrase, or to keep myself interested during a more mundane passage.
I've heard it expressed by one professor, that absolute metric time was desired during the Renaissance. I also remember the notion that rubato, in the romantic period, was just a way of lending or borrowing time in such a way that the same piece played straight through at a constant tempo would end at the same time as the performance where rubato was performed. All of this is bait for discussion, but also a precursor to a main query. I attempted to play along with a youtube video of a fellow playing Francesco, and found that it was impossible to do; he took wild liberties with the tempo at every whim (either that or I can't play in time!). I wanted to hear some comment on that aspect of the performance, as well as on any other point I have raised. Thanks! Tobiah http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y837TG7FgFM To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
