Is rubato then a suspension of rhythmic judgement, Edna? This fascinates because rubato has always seemed to me to be a supreme act of judgement: 'my reshaping of the architechtonics of this piece trump the written structures or improve upon them'. But I like that you point toward the agnostic ethical stance in such interpretation.

I must say that the reason I posted this last musing of mine was not to affirm anything, and I don’t know its measure of truth, or its making any sense. It was a question, a relation between words that seduced me, and I thought it could be interesting to look and reflect upon, and what a better place to throw this idea than in here, where I look forward to interesting contribution of opinions and ideas. However, what you think I said, Sam, is certainly a mistake and a misunderstanding of what I meant. I must therefore clarify. I believe, like Fleisher, that the use of the suspension, which is indeed a sort of rubato*, is not playing gods with the music, as you wrote, or rewriting what the composer wrote already before, but it is supporting what he meant deeply. Music must have a strict notation system, in order to be written simply, thus “easily” and universally understood, but the fact that notation is simplified, doesn’t mean that the interpreter must stick to a two dimensional interpretation of the “right” notes and the “precise” rhythm. I wrote my opinion in this post, on how far from “juste” music becomes looking at it from that perspective. On the contrary, I think sticking to mathematically correct interpretations makes it less moving and less beautiful. Why not let robots play then? I like to think of composers writing sublime music as being a reflection of something deeper, something that expresses universal beauty and goes beyond music’s beauty, and the role of the interpreter lies in looking for the hidden meaning, another dimension, nowhere written.

Why do I find suspensions so fascinating? First because it is something indefinable, immeasurable. It’s a magical moment, time suspended when inhaling the scent of a rose, while tasting a Madeleine. In music, suspension is a precursor of movement, and I like so much this word- movement. Playing music, moving people is what we endeavor, could it be created by movement, by suspension?

*(for the non musicians who’d like this info: rubato consists in “stealing” some time from a certain note or a passage, which can be done by slowing down, or in the case I’m describing- suspending- giving extra time, and consequently giving the time back through playing faster, in a way that you keep the rigor of the time and measure of the external structure while being still free on the details.)