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)

The literature about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 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 handwriting, day and night, in order to retroactively uncover stylistic principles. Then there are the many books about Mozart’s operas, in which authors circle mainly around familiar 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 Mozart research nor a substantial new contribution to the field. Every year, there are new books about Mozart in the display windows, yet one has the feeling one has read them all before turning a single page. Helmut Breidenstein’s book about Mozart’s tempo system proves a real exception.

As Helmut Breidenstein has already explored similar issues in Mozart-Studien 13, 16, and 17 (“Mozarts Tempo-System: Zusammengesetzte Takte als Schlüssel” in Mozart-Studien, vol. 13 [Tutzing: Schneider, 2004], 11–85; “Mozarts Tempo-System 2: Die geraden Taktarten, teil 1” in Mozart-Studien, vol. 16 [Tutzing: Schneider, 2007], 255–99; “Mozarts Tempo-System 2: Die geraden 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 markings that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart himself 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, one is amazed that a catalog of this nature is being introduced to the body of musicological literature for the first time. The book is divided into three parts. In the introduction, “Tempo Determination in the 18th Century” (Tempo-Bestimmung im 18. Jahrhundert), the author presents an exhaustive account of the classification of tempo words in different sources from the eighteenth century. This section alone reveals that the approach to tempo words differed in the various sources. The main section “Mozart’s Tempo System” (Das Tempo-System Mozarts), follows with an annotated listing of Mozart’s complete tempo words, in most of the cases with corresponding music 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 perhaps reflecting Breidenstein’s personal thoughts rather than those of other Mozart researchers. Neither are the divisions in the chapter “Das Tempo-System Mozarts” convincing. Breidenstein understands Mozart’s 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 separated 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. He further makes a distinction between tempo indications for church music in the “new style” and the same tempo words in secular music...