Although digital metronome software has replaced the need for the classic mechanical metronome, the beat goes on for collectors who respect the engineering and craftsmanship of the box on top of the piano. It does, however, often provide additional features, particularly for recording artists. A Digital Metronome is just a piece of software. Quartz metronomes make use of quartz crystal, much like a watch does. Electronic, or Quartz, Metronomes came onto the scene as the more precise way of determining time. They usually come in a pyramid shape and use an inverted pendulum to keep the beat. Mechanical Metronomes are what might well be thought of as the “classical” metronome.
There are various types of metronomes on the market today. Modernist composers of the 20th century, such as Stravinsky and Bartók, wrote music demanding stringent rhythmic precision, and conductors obliged, forming the basis for a pro-metronome movement in the music world. In the same way, metronome markings were a way for composers to communicate the tempo at which they intended a piece to be performed. Ludwig Van Beethoven became the first composer to give his pieces metronome markings, and even pledged to do away with indicating such indefinite tempi as “allegretto.” Musicians had already adopted standardized symbols to indicate time signature, key, dynamics and note relationships. An early example of a Maelzel metronome can be found in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection, acquired by The Met in 1979 as part of its acquisition of The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments. Each swing of the pendulum produced an audible tick, and users could adjust a dial to control the tempo of the ticking. Maelzel’s metronome used an escapement (think of the toothed wheel that makes a watch tick) to transfer power from a wound-up spring to a weighted pendulum. Through questionable practice (so goes the story), Johann Maelzel appropriated Winkel’s ideas, added a scale, called it a metronome and started manufacturing the metronome under his own name in 1816: “Maelzel’s Metronome.” Maelzel also patented this creation in London, Paris, and Vienna.
In 1814, the German inventor Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel developed a “musical chronometer” capable of keeping fast and slow times, but he failed to patent his device. Plaguing Loulié and his contemporaries was the problem of creating a metronome that would beat slowly enough to keep the tempo of many classical musical pieces, often set at a mere 40 to 60 beats per minute. His “machine” was merely an adjustable pendulum with calibrations, but without sound or an escapement to keep it in motion. In 1696, Etienne Loulié (1654–1702), a noted French musical theorist, attempted to apply the principles of the pendulum to a metronome. Galileo realized his discovery could be applied to timekeeping, leading to the invention of the pendulum-powered clock by Christiaan Huyghens in the 17th century and George Graham in the 18th. In other words, regardless of amplitude, the pendulum will take about the same amount of time to complete one period, or back-and-forth swing. In 1581, Galileo Galilei studied and discovered that pendulums (of any given length) vibrated in the same time, whether the amplitude was large or small. He also created an instrument with an inverted pendulum that could be set to a beat at so many times per minute with a loud ticking to keep the tempo – the precursor to the metronome more finely evolved centuries later. Among his many inventions, Abbas Ibn Firnas is known to have designed a water clock called al-Maqata, devised a means of manufacturing colorless glass, invented various glass planispheres, made corrective lenses (“reading stones”), devised a chain of rings that could be used to simulate the motions of the planets and stars, and developed a process for cutting rock crystal that allowed Spain to cease exporting quartz to Egypt to be cut. While digital software has replaced the need for the box with the swinging pendulum, it remains an endearing and “old school” approach to keeping the beat.Īlthough Johann Maelzel (1772–1838), a German inventor, engineer, and showman, is credited with patenting the metronome as we know it in 1815 (under the title “Instrument/Machine for the Improvement of all Musical Performance”), a kind of metronome was among the inventions of Andalusian polymath Abbas ibn Firnas (810–887 A.D.), an inventor, physician, chemist, engineer, Andalusian musician, and Arabic-language poet. If you ever took music lessons chances are you are familiar with the metronome the audible task master that helped you to keep time with the music.
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