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ABSTRACT: We examined microtiming properties in a corpus of 48 recorded performances of J.S. Bach's C Major Prelude from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I. Drawing on the results of a listening experiment and from wavelet analysis, we derived a quantitative measure of rubato 'depth' that was used to assess timing trends across performances. In addition to highlighting important structural moments in the Prelude, rubato was used to bring melodic elements into relief as well as to generate grouping segmentations that may contradict the Prelude's inherent phrase structure. We then applied the statistical method of principal components analysis (PCA) to examine timing contours specific to individual performers. Repetitively consistent microrhythmic patterns, which we qualified as grooveSlike, differed from nonSconsistent and nonSrepetitive timing inflections, which we qualified as rubato-like.
KEY WORDS: rhythm, rubato, groove, microtiming, J.S. Bach, C Major Prelude, corpus analysis
This study examines various dimensions of rubato in 48 recorded performances of J.S. Bach's C major Prelude (BWV 846) from The Well Tempered Clavier, Book I. One of a small handful of 'figural' {or 'pattern') keyboard preludes by Bach, this work is structurally unique among the keyboard compositions analysed in the literature on rubato. The Prelude's foreground lacks melodies, rhythmic motives, textural variety, and perfect cadences. Instead, for 32 of its 35 bars, the music unfolds algorithmically: a five-note ascending arpeggio, repetition of the last three notes, repetition of the last two beats, and repetition of the process with a new pitch set. "The musical teleology," writes Robert Wason, "[is] determined purely by resources of pitch organization - or 'harmony"' (2002, p. 104).
This surface homogeneity requires that we think carefully when invoking one of the widely accepted and empirically validated tenets of rubato: that it is used at phrase boundaries, often as a result of previous phrase-final lengthening (Todd, 1985). Despite the Prelude's unusual structure, its phrase boundaries are delineated harmonically, as is the case in most Western common practice music. We will therefore encounter much concordance between the Prelude's harmonic structure and uses of rubato. But there is more to the story. Our goal is to show that performers use rubato in such a way as to seem to extract linear elements from vertical structures, shift the focus of the musical...