parlando-rubato
Hungarian composer
Definition
A free, speech-like rhythmic style, unbound from strict metric pulse, in which the performer shapes time as a speaker shapes language. Inherited from Bartók's ethnomusicological work and central to Kurtág's expressive language.
Interpretive Guidance
In parlando-rubato passages, let the phrase breathe and contract naturally; count nothing, feel everything. The written note-values are a guide to proportion, not a metronomic grid.