Classical Music Questions
May. 11th, 2015 08:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stormdogSo I know next to nothing about classical music, other than the names of a few composers and pieces that I like. I'm listening to some classical CDs that I've had around for years as I write my take home finals and term papers and questions about them are coming up.
The pieces on this Mozart CD, for instance, almost all have a tempo indication as part of their title. (I only learned that these were tempo indications recently, thanks to Google. Until then I thought words like "allegro" or "adagio" were part of some standardized descriptive title schema that I didn't understand.)
Anyway, take a piece of music described as "Eine kleine Nachtmusik: Allegro." Is allegro included because it actually *is* part of the title, or is it just to indicate that it's performed that way in this recording? If the latter, is the same piece also generally played with other timings? Is it up to the conductor? And why do some pieces have a tempo noted and others do not?
The pieces on this Mozart CD, for instance, almost all have a tempo indication as part of their title. (I only learned that these were tempo indications recently, thanks to Google. Until then I thought words like "allegro" or "adagio" were part of some standardized descriptive title schema that I didn't understand.)
Anyway, take a piece of music described as "Eine kleine Nachtmusik: Allegro." Is allegro included because it actually *is* part of the title, or is it just to indicate that it's performed that way in this recording? If the latter, is the same piece also generally played with other timings? Is it up to the conductor? And why do some pieces have a tempo noted and others do not?
