#63: Character can govern tempo relationships
Section 7: Antonin Dvořák – String Quartet Op.51, ii: Dumka
Posts #50 and #57 hinted at the potential permutational complexity of b.23-26 (beat 1). A similar realisation that improved our copying was the idea that the low point in pitch (D2 in the cello, b.25) might act as a pivot for tempo — in other words, that the lowest point in pitch was also the slowest moment in the phrase. This mapping is not exact, but deriving the timing profile in terms of this moment’s portentous personality meant it could then be ‘balanced out’ by lightening into b.26.
