On Music

Music is such a high art form that it takes years of training and immersion to simply touch its surface and understand a bit of its concepts and ideas. Here I shall try to make sense of what is known as ‘Tempo’, after reading a wonderful book in the Esplanade library on the subject.

Tempo
The tempo referred to here is not simply the rhythm, whether it is jagged, syncopated, etc., but the pulse, how fast it is when you count the beats, 1-2-3-4, is it fast or slow. This element is often neglected among performers and listeners, but it plays a very important and elementary role in determining the mood and feel and the entire makeup of the song. The correct tempo should be one that allows the song’s melodies to be eminently singable, not too draggy so that the melodies all fall apart to become individual notes (because the sense of rhythm (and I mean rhythm, not tempo) is lost as a result), and not too fast so that one is hardly able to ‘hear’ the note itself cleanly, which is bad as well. Hence it is probably more accurate to state that there are a range of tempi that a song can be played, and this range varies from a very small window, perhaps for some rock songs or dance tracks when the tempo itself is crucial in adding to the feel of the song, to jazz standards etc when there is probably a looser sense of rhythm that allows performers greater flexibility.
It is not necessarily true that tempo is always decided by mood (happy songs=fast, sad songs=slow), but the greater determinant is the melody in itself, as singled out earlier, but the shape and form of the melody itself. For instance, ‘moon river’ has a large expansive shape, consisting of a perfect 5th up (which is characteristic), and slowly leading stepwards down to the 4th and up again to the 5th in seconds. Because of this large expansive shape being the characteristic of the song, it is only natural that the tempo allows for this broadness, this expansiveness, symbolized by perhaps a grand in-out movement of the arms. On the other hand, a song like ‘Happy together’ will become stifling and boring if it were to be in the same tempo as ‘Moon River’. The verse is rather rhythmic (stop start), and the melody is rather narrow, consisting mainly of seconds, in a descending sequence, and hence the tempo is more edgy and fluid (gets on with it) so as to convey that unique rhythm that characterizes the song. Furthermore, the part ‘I do’, which is on the off-beat, is to be sung in a tone which convinces the listener(the girl) that he actually does ‘imagine me and you’, and hence it has to be rather fast, because the style is one of a man trying to both express his emotions, because deep down he is romantic and feels for her, and wants to hide it, being a little afraid of an unfavourable reaction from her. So hence the mumble ‘I do’. Moreover, the part ‘I can’t see me loving nobody but you’ is to be joyous and exclamatory, a outpouring statement of love and devotion, and hence it is delivered almost anthemically and with a vigour that is conveyed in the tempo of straight beats that are almost martial.
I shall continue more next time. If any of you are playing in a band, this is really important—too many times have I heard young kids, especially, play piano too fast, or old men play too slowly. It is not how fast or how slow you can move your fingers, but how tempi affects listening, that’s the key.