Mozarts Tempo-System: Ein Handbuch für die professionelle Praxis: Alle Autograph bezeichneten Tempi in 420 Gruppen von Stücken gleicher Charakteristik mit 392 kommentierten Notenbeispielen und allen relevanten Quellentexten by Helmut Breidenstein (review)

Abstract

Tempo-System: Ein Hand- buch fur die professionelle Praxis: Alle Autograph bezeichneten Tempi in 420 Gruppen von Stucken gleicher Charakteristik mit 392 kommentierten Notenbeispielen und allen relevanten Quellentexten. By Helmut Breiden- stein. Tutzing: Schneider, 2011. [379 p. ISBN 9783862960286. i85.] Music ex- amples, tables, bibliography, index.The literature about Wolfgang Amadeus is vast. As such, it is understandable that many books resemble each other in content and approach. There are the philologists who examine watermarks and undertake analyses of paper and handwrit- ing, day and night, in order to retroactively uncover stylistic principles. Then there are the many books about operas, in which authors circle mainly around famil- iar subjects written anew. Finally, there are the many handbooks-published in time for the Mozart year of 2006-which offer neither an overview of current re- search nor a substantial new contribution to the field. Every year, there are new books about in the display windows, yet has the feeling has read them all before turning a single page. Helmut Breidenstein's book about tempo system proves a real exception.As Helmut Breidenstein has already ex- plored similar issues in Mozart-Studien 13, 16, and 17 (Mozarts Tempo-System: Zusammengesetzte Takte als Schlussel in Mozart-Studien, vol. 13 [Tutzing: Schneider, 2004], 11-85; Tempo-System 2: Die geraden Taktarten, teil 1 in Mozart- Studien, vol. 16 [Tutzing: Schneider, 2007], 255-99; Tempo-System 2: Die ger- aden Taktarten, teil 2 in Mozart-Studien, vol. 17 [Tutzing: Schneider, 2008], 77- 159), the book at hand, published in 2011, is an aggregation of his documentation. The information is organized in a catalog- style listing of the complete tempo mark- ings that Wolfgang Amadeus him- self indicated in his works. In this regard, the book should be understood rather as a lexicon and, therefore, is not very reader- friendly. At the same time, is amazed that a catalog of this nature is being intro- duced to the body of musicological litera- ture for the first time. The book is divided into three parts. In the introduction, Determination in the 18th Century (Tempo-Bestimmung im 18. Jahr- hundert), the author presents an exhaus- tive account of the classification of tempo words in different sources from the eigh- teenth century. This section alone reveals that the approach to tempo words differed in the various sources. The main section Mozart's Tempo (Das Tempo- System Mozarts), follows with an annotated listing of complete tempo words, in most of the cases with corresponding mu- sic examples. The commentaries appear, however, to be somewhat less objective.There is, for example, this statement about the first four measures of the Minuet, K. 585, no. 4: one sees dotted rhythms and a Haydnesque heterogeneity in the violin melody (p. 214), a view per- haps reflecting Breidenstein's personal thoughts rather than those of other researchers. Neither are the divisions in the chapter Das Tempo-System Mozarts con- vincing. Breidenstein understands music in idiosyncratic categories. The tempo terms for church music are once listed under stile antico, then within the scope of church music in the neuen styl (new style). In turn, he distinguishes within this realm between music in duple and triple meter; then he gives an overview of tempo words in the minuets. In the final chapter, he discusses dances and marches. These individual categories are then sepa- rated into subdivisions, which are also not always understandable. Secular music, for example, is examined in sections as follows: a) der ganztaktige 'leichte' 3/4 and b) der 'schwere' 3/4 (2/8+2/8+2/8) triple time.Breidenstein's categorization suggests that an allegro in the stile antico should be performed differently than the allegro section of a symphony, as the latter falls into the category of secular music. …