On tempo of durations in Beethoven's sonatas

The article studies the time intoning on the basis of chronometric measurementsystem during the piano performance. With the help of the computer program, Adobe Audition 2.0, the audio signals from thegramophone and audio records performed by the best pianists of the past and present were recorded. Then, using the same computerprogram, we carried out the time-keeping of a very single tone of the composition. Measurement accuracy of this program is 0.001 sec.The measured time results of every tone were written into the table built in Microsoft Word-2003, where the time automatically was recalculatedin the tempo system according to Maelzel's metronome (the number of beats per minute to the metric duration). After that, onthe basis of the mentioned table and a diagram in Microsoft Word -2003, the tempo profile of every tone in performance was elaborated.To compare and discover the common tendencies, we combined some tempo profiles of different performers and built the summarydiagram of tempos. As a result of our measurements and analysis of the performer intoning, we have come to the following conclusions.Strong concordance of the tempo profiles are observed during some fragments, while there is complete disagreement during the others.The concordance and disagreement of tempo profiles during the performance can be explained by many facts including compositiongenre, composer's style, form and context, tempo of performance itself. There is interference between closely placed durations, when along duration makes the next short duration a little bit longer, while the following short duration shortens the previous longer one. Wecannot put an equality mark between the complex of the composition structure and chaos. The correlation of tempo profiles intoexpositions and reprises can definitely show us this fact. The chaos cannot create repeating structures. Only the focused targeted wish ofa musician can implement it into life. A great number of agreements in tempo trajectories of one performer point out his individual wayin time intoning. The measurement analysis of performer's duration shows that the rhythm has a great influence on the tempo ofdurations performance. Thus, the rhythmic image set by a composer includes some tempo ideas of a musician as well, which are realisedby a performer, sometimes even unintentionally. The tempo trajectories of performers are more individual, while they are performing theslow tempo or cantilena, than the fast one. The theme of a composition becomes more individual and peculiar. A performer's individualcharacter of time intoning possesses quite strong stability and repetition. The pianist's stability in the time intoning is so high, that it canbe treated as a practical mechanism of the performer's style. Analysing the way of repetition we can conclude that performers, whileplaying, intone time differently in respect to composition notes, but not to their own way of performing. A number of rules, which theperformer applies, are enormous and a part of them he or she establishes individually.

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