Chestnuts: Becoming A Rubato Geek
OK, I admit it, I was streaming Christmas music again during my commute this week. Alright, alright—a few other times too…
Lots of mid-century renditions of classic holiday songs were in the mix. You know the ones—Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, Baby It’s Cold Outside, Silver Bells, Winter Wonderland, Silent Night, Jingle Bells, Sleigh Ride, Here Comes Santa Claus, Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas, Let it Snow, to name a few. You know the artists too—Mel Torme, Bing Crosby, Nat King Cole, Frank Sinatra, Johnny Mathis, Perry Como, Harry Connick Jr., Tony Bennett, Andy Williams, et al.
Hokey? You betcha! When I was younger I was embarrassed by all this hokiness. It was of another generation and I needed my own musical identity. In music school it was classical all the way and we were rigidly kept on the straight and narrow. For that matter my generation’s rock and roll kept the beat rigidly too. Some irony there…
Now though, I realize how much listening to these mid-century musicians helped shape me as a musician. This week I was entranced anew by the way phrases were spun within the meter yet flexible and free of it. I owe these artists for my own concept of rubato—of spacing the notes ahead or behind the beat.
What I didn’t know when I went to music school was when it was appropriate to use rubato (also I had never heard the word rubato, but that’s another blog post). To me it was simply the way music was.
I had an unexpected chance to try out my musical insight on vacation last weekend. Every Sunday afternoon there is an organ concert in the outdoor Spreckles Pavilion at Balboa Park. This weekend was holiday themed and included a sing-along. It also included 30+ dachshunds Waltzing in a Wiener Wonderland, but alas, that too is another blog post.
Here I was, able to sing the phrases any way I wanted with that mighty organ and, best of all, with complete anonymity. No one could hear me as an individual. Of course, this makes me some kind of rubato geek. But the point is, I could do what the crooners did. And, it felt completely natural on a musical level. It is exactly what I do in classical music where rubato is appropriate.
How is it that no one ever tapped into that experience of mine to help me know what I was doing? I surely don’t know, but the insight, affirmation, or whatever you want to call it is an unexpected and very much appreciated holiday gift.
Yes! It is fun isn’t it? Interestingly, I’ve noticed that students who have a hard time with rubato also have a hard time reading text aloud with expression. Thanks for your great comments and for being one of my most loyal readers.
Astonishing to think that it’s not so far off the descriptions of rubato by both Mozart & Chopin. So strange that we have to compartmentalize and draw boundaries…
Thanks for your always insightful comments!
Sometimes I think that rubato is the only thing that really distinguishes what we think of as popular radio-play music from what we think of as classical, and even then not always. One of the cooler things about barbershop (not a fave genre of mine) is the rubato there as well. The bigger choruses are really free with their rhythm. Rubato for me is recitatif — it’s so fun to work that stuff out on a piano. 🙂
Thanks for writing — the blog’s always interesting and one of the few music blogs that I make a point of stopping in and reading. Have a good holiday!
Thank you for posting this – I just spent a few minutes contemplating the dimensions of what you cover here – it is all so very pertinent to my present concerns, so I took great pleasure in reading…
Thanks.
Wayne
I was fortunate in this also:
“I realize how much listening to these mid-century musicians helped shape me as a musician. This week I was entranced anew by the way phrases were spun within the meter yet flexible and free of it. I owe these artists for my own concept of rubato—of spacing the notes ahead or behind the beat.” and I still realize these qualities in performing Mozart and Chopin and others.