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Brief History of the Metronome

Even the metronome, a simple device used by millions of musicians, is not without its storied past, colorful characters, and controversies.

The word "metronome" comes from the Greek: "metron," meaning "measure," and "nomos," meaning "regulating." This, then, is a perfect label for a device that musicians, composers, and recording engineers can set to audibly beat at regular intervals as they learn, practice, and create music.

Metronomes began with the pendulum. Galileo Galilei, in the late 17th century, discovered that pendulums, regardless of length or amplitude, vibrated in the same time. Through the 17th and 18th centuries, inventors added calibrations, weights, and "escapements" to pendulums in an attempt to create a device that musicians could set to continually oscillate anywhere from 40 to 208 beats per minute ( bpm). The long pendulums needed for very slow tempi (40 - 60 bpm), however, rendered most of these early metronomes rather impractical.

In the early 19th century, Dietrik Nikolaus Winkel added double weights to the pendulum - one that remained fixed, and the other that could be slid along the rod of the pendulum to either speed up or slow down the tempo. This seemed to be the best idea yet, but unfortunately, Winkel is not the person glorified as the "inventor of the metronome."

While Winkel was developing his double-weighted device, Johann Nepemuk Maelzel, a trained musician and developer of world-famous music-making and chess-playing automatons, among other gadgets and quirky amusements, was also dabbling in metronome development. When Maelzel got wind of Winkel's double-weighted pendulum idea and realized Winkel's device was superior to his own, he met with Winkel and tried, unsuccessfully, to coax Winkel into selling him his idea. No matter - Maelzel simply added a scale to indicate where to place the weight to achieve a certain tempo, patented the device as "Maelzel's Metronome," and, today, is still credited with the invention.

Beethoven was acquainted with Maelzel, who created Several ear trumpets to help with Beethoven's mounting hearing loss. As they established somewhat of a friendly relationship, Maelzel suggested some ideas for music that Beethoven would later compose (music that Maelzel tried to pass off as his own, which, understandably, did not sit well with Beethoven). Perhaps in an attempt to patch things up with an angered Beethoven, Maelzel provided him with one of his metronomes. Some speculate, however, that some of the erratic time signatures in Beethoven's music may owe to a malfunctioning metronome, or possibly to Beethoven's improper use of a device with which he was not entirely comfortable. Regardless, Beethoven may have been one of the first composers to use a metronome in his craft.

The advent of electricity meant that metronomes could include features like flashing lights to indicate beats or beginnings of measures. With the discovery of alternating current, metronomes like the Franz Electric Metronome (1938) emerged, in which an electric motor "drives a tempo-beating hammer through a mechanical reduction." Even with electricity, improvements to and use of the pendulum-style metronome continued into the mid-to-late 20th century, including mechanisms to enable the pendulums to level themselves even if not on a flat surface, and mechanisms to prevent the escapement from jamming accidentally.

The 1970s also brought forth improvements in digital electronics, which became applicable to metronomes. As microprocessors became small and affordable, other features were added besides keeping time, like tuning notes and accented beats.

Today, computer software applications for smartphones and other devices have all but eliminated the need for pendulums or little battery-powered devices with beeps and flashing lights. Regardless, there remains controversy over whether musicians should use metronomes at all. While some raise concerns that metronomes make music sound too mechanical, others hold the metronome - whoever may have invented it - in the highest regard as an essential tool for growth and mastery in music.