What is Rubato

[joeyd929]

I was recently watching an instruction video for Piano and a tune was said to be played in "Rubato" style. What does Rubato mean?

[Poparad]

'Rubato' means to play with a not-so-strict sense of time. You may push the tempo in some spots, and pull back in others, and hold long notes without any predetermined length. Generally, if you play a phrase rubato, you will start slightly slow, speed up towards the middle, and pull back at the end, and pause breifly before starting the next phrase.

Rubato is generally used during introductions to songs, or during codas/endings. A rubato passage is almost always played by a solo instrument as the tempo fluctuations are too difficult to coordinate since they are not predetermined with any prescision.

[joppe]

Like the intro to 'Diary of a madman' by Ozzy Osbourne?!