It might be said that this dramatic _rubato_ is something different from Chopin's _rubato_. _Rubato_ literally means "robbed," and it is generally supposed that the peculiarity of Chopin's style consisted simply in this, that he prolonged certain notes in a bar at the expense of the others--robbing from one what he gave to his neighbor. But this is a very inadequate conception of the term. Chopin's _rubato_ means much more than this. It includes, to a large extent, the frequent unexpected changes of time and rhythm, together with the _ritardandos_ and _accelerandos_. It includes, secondly, those unique passages, first conceived by Chopin, where the right hand has to play irregular groups of small notes--say twenty-two, while the left hand plays only twelve; or nineteen, while the left plays four--passages in which Chopin indicated as clearly as Wagner did in the words just quoted that the musical bar is a mere mechanical measure which does not sufficiently indicate the phrasing of the romantic or dramatic ideas that lie beyond the walls of a dance-hall. There is a third peculiarity of Chopin's style which may be included under the name of _rubato_, namely, his habit of "robbing" the note, not of its duration, but its _accent_. Every student of music knows that the symphony and sonata are called "idealized dance forms," because they are direct outgrowths of the dances that were cultivated originally in Italy, France, and Germany. Now, one peculiarity of these dances is the fact that the accent always falls on the first beat of each bar. This is very appropriate and convenient for dancing, but from an artistic point of view, it is decidedly monotonous. Hence, Chopin conferred a vast benefit on modern art by introducing the spirit of Slavic music, in which the accent often falls on other beats beside the first. These regular accents produce the effect of the variable _tempo rubato_, and it is to them that Chopin's works largely owe their exotic, poetic color. As they open up new possibilities of emotional expression, they have been eagerly appropriated by other composers and have leavened all modern music. To Chopin, therefore, chiefly belongs the honor of having emancipated music from the monotony of the Western European dance-beat by means of the _tempo rubato_ in its varied aspects.