from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun Rhythmic flexibility within a phrase or measure; a relaxation of strict time.
adjective Containing or characterized by rubato.
from The Century Dictionary.
In music, in modified or distorted rhythm: especially used of the arbitrary lengthening of certain notes in a measure and the corresponding shortening of others, for the purpose of bringing some tone or chord into decided prominence without altering the total duration of the measure.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
adjective Robbed; borrowed.
adjective (Mus.) Borrowed time; -- a term applied to a style of performance in which some tones are held longer than their legitimate time, while others are proportionally curtailed.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun music A tempo in which strict timing is relaxed, the music being played near, but not on the beat
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun a flexible tempo; not strictly on the beat
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Italian (tempo) rubato, stolen (time), rubato, past participle of rubare, to rob, of Germanic origin; see reup- in Indo-European roots.]
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Examples
Minute adjustments in just the right places (aka rubato) can make the music broaden out or seem hurried, or languid ... it's the power to create emotion in time.
He offered a particularly impressive Scherzo No. 2; despite a few missed notes, it was his best outing of the evening, with splendid virtuosity in the middle section and perfectly judged rubato throughout.
Hans Graf's conducting is similarly efficient enough, middle-of-the-road in his tempi and sparing in his use of rubato, while the Houston Symphony proves itself a highly competent band.
""|Hélène| Grimaud doesn't sound like most pianists: she is a rubato artist, a reinventor of phrasings, a taker of chances. "A wrong note that is played out of élan, you hear it differently than one that is played out of fear," she says.""
ruzuzu commented on the word rubato
""|Hélène| Grimaud doesn't sound like most pianists: she is a rubato artist, a reinventor of phrasings, a taker of chances. "A wrong note that is played out of élan, you hear it differently than one that is played out of fear," she says.""
-- https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne_Grimaud&oldid=778559561
June 20, 2017