I'm having to accompany a grade 3 treble recorder pupil for her exam next week (I usually only do my own string players). The first piece is the Charpentier Prelude, from the Time Pieces book.

The metronome mark is minim = 72, which is pretty fast. Does anyone know if it's necessary to play it at this speed or if it's generally played a bit slower?

I know in the violin exam books they often say if pieces may be played a little slower in the exam and this strikes me as a possible candidate!

Any ideas welcome!

If you are accompanying, and if this is therefore someone else's pupil...be guided by how she plays it? I'm afraid I don't have the book and therefore can't be sure of the piece, but I know that metronome markings in modern editions tend to be a bit erratic for early music. French preludes very often would be setting the scene for what was to follow, particularly helping to anchor the key, and I'm guessing also providing a bit of doodling to help settle the audience , and many of the ones I've come across have tended to be more on the stately side....

...however, I'm sure for this one it's really going to be a case of getting the recorder player to play the opening few bars, and matching that .

Just looked at it.

Minim 72 strikes me as a bit on the quick side, so yes if the soloist isn't doing that speed I wouldn't push it.

Last person I had doing it would have been around the minim 58 - 60 mark.

I accompanied a grade 2 bassoon exam this week and I let him set the speed. Certainly a lot slower than the metronome marking in one piece - there's no point in the accompanist rollicking along if the soloist can't keep up!

For piano exams I've always taken the view that the metronome markings are guidelines only and set a speed which is comfortable to play without significant errors.

Thanks everyone.

I'd thought it seemed a bit on the quick side so you give me added confidence to slow it down a bit. I just don't want it to be too 'scrambled' for the pupil, which is an examiner comment I came across recently when someone played a Baroque piece at the given speed!

Good to hear, Katyjay, that you've had someone play it slower, which is what I've found when it's been a violin piece.

Yup, way to speedy! For the lower grades the penalty for poor choice of tempo is pretty small anyway - far better to give an accurate, musical performance rather than fall over all the notes!

(Hope my exam pupes for this week are listening to Bag.... )

Enjoy the accompanying!

Tempo-Bag x

Thanks. We've had a couple of run-throughs now and all seems to be well. She can play it pretty much up to speed but it actually sounds more musical a little bit under the marked tempo. I think it doesn't help that the first few notes are quite low on the treble recorder so difficult to get much volume.

Fingers crossed for the exam!