PhD Thesis (Multimedia items accompanying this thesis to be consulted at Robinson Library )The inter-war period of the twentieth century represents something of a ‘golden age’
in solo violin playing. In addition to an unprecedented degree of technical prowess, a
huge amount of variety existed between different performers, with the majority of
well-known artists exhibiting their own unique sound and manner of delivery. One
area of expression in which a divergence of approach is most evident is that of musical
timing, whereby performers utilise what is generally termed ‘rubato’ in order to
convey either the structure or emotional character of the music. This thesis utilises
specialised computational methods of empirical analysis in order to investigate how
rubato is used in thirty recordings of the Adagio from Brahms’ Violin Concerto, Op. 77,
made by eminent performers who were active during this period. By comparing these
recordings in detail, the principle aim is to ascertain just how much performers differ in
their approaches to musical timing and, conversely, where there is some degree of
common practice. Literary sources pertaining to rubato from the late-nineteenth and
early-twentieth centuries are also scrutinised, in order to determine to what extent
these written descriptions of rubato relate to use of the device in real-life
performances. Key stylistic traits are identified and categorised, in order to inform
performers who are looking to incorporate something of this twentieth-century style
of rubato into their own playing.
To date, the vast majority of empirical studies of performance have been conducted in
the field of music psychology, with musicological approaches tending to favour closelistening
methods in order to identify key stylistic traits. This study has attempted to
use both empirical analysis and close-listening in tandem, which allows for the
identification of common timing patterns across all thirty recordings, as well as the
detailed examination of idiosyncrasies within their respective musical contexts. Sonic
Visualiser software has been used to create a number of innovative video examples
that incorporate tempo graphs with the original recorded sound, in order to see and
hear what is happening in the music simultaneously