What do you think this exciting video can be used for?
Posted at 11:00 am
It allows a musician without a metronome to play accurately at 110 beats per minute1. On YouTube there are hundreds of these videos at all speeds, not to mention the many applications that perfectly replace this antiquity:
In 1816, a Bavarian engineer named Johann Maelzel patented the metronome, which is the musician’s reference scale for rhythm.
As a kid, when I started playing the piano, we still had my grandmother’s old pyramid-shaped metronome. I should have kept it: online these old machines are now selling for hundreds of dollars.
I remember the feeling as the slider moved on the rod and solid metal clicked gently on its dial. With its Bakelite case, this heavy and indestructible plastic, the device made an impression of solidity and flawless mechanics.
But conductor Bernard Labadie never had the same confidence as I did: “You could always wonder if the spring was working properly, if the given tempo was accurate. »
For two centuries there has been a battle over Beethoven’s metronome markings in his symphonies: They are so fast that it has often been said that his metronome must be defective. A somewhat strong explanation for coffee…
Bernard Labadie, conductor
The second movement of Beethoven’s Eighth Symphony is considered an allusion to the metronome, whose inventor he knew. Conductor Paavo Järvi adopts Beethoven’s exact tempo of 88 beats per minute, which I think is very decent for an Allegretto.
But when you superimpose a real metronome on this performance, the shifts are numerous and I swear to you, it’s the metronome that looks crazy!
Without getting into relativity (I couldn’t), we can say that time is elastic: the two minutes separating you from the result of a pregnancy test is both endless and dense, but having two minutes in the sun at the beach the lightness of a meringue.
The same is true of music: time is variable, depending on the amount and texture of the notes they occupy and the musicians’ personalities. In classical music we don’t have the reference of a drum set keeping time, so everything becomes…negotiable.
The musicians must learn to speak to one another, for the absolute of the metronome is worthless: it is almost an insult to invoke it or suggest its use in a group.
Diplomacy is helpful: “I don’t think we count the same” comes across better than “You do it faster! “. “I don’t understand your idea of rhythm” will do better than “You always rush the third beat!””.
Yukari Cousineau, concertmaster of the Orchester Métropolitain, does a lot of chamber music. In a video produced for ICI Musique2, she explains that the metronome allows her to be aware of what she is doing. “There’s a big difference between taking liberties and…doing anything! “, She says.
“If I do something rhythmically illogical, I throw my colleagues out […] I’ll first use the metronome to create a stable structure. Then, if I intend to go faster or slower, move within a set, my peers will be happy and will follow along with no problem as long as what I’m doing is clear and purposeful. »
Working between performers is always a challenge, but when it comes to a new work, you also have to get along with the composer.
Olga Ranzenhofer, founder and leader of the Molinari Quartet, has done it hundreds of times. “We first work with the metronome to fully understand the composer’s intentions before interpreting them to our liking. It must be said that when the composers themselves hear the piece come to life, they sometimes change their minds and readjust their metronome markings. »
The tempo is never fixed; the music needs to breathe, which the metronome doesn’t!
Olga Ranzenhofer, founder and first violinist of the Molinari Quartet
We all have a personal relationship with this ruthless machine.
Frédéric Lambert, principal violist of the Orchester symphonique de Laval and professor at UQAM, always tells his students: “You just have to see the metronome as someone who wants us well. Being told our truth often hurts; only good friends do that. »
He’s right: when I’m rehearsing a new piece, the metronome test recognizes passages that are technically less secure. Working on scales and arpeggios allows you to check the regularity and gradually increase the intensity of the exercise.
The metronome accompanies our athletic performance on the instrument for much longer than the Fit Bit for our training.
1. La maudite machine, a 1973 song by the group Octobre, has exactly 110 beats per minute. I thought Pierre Hébert’s drum kit was as immutable as a machine, but putting the metronome over it measures human latitude… for the better.