Sentences of a paragraph are given below in jumbled order. Arrange the sentences in the right order to form a meaningful and coherent paragraph.

A. It is impossible to adhere in a musical manner to the metronomic beat for any length of time.

B. In a loosely knit passage a tautening of tempo may be required; in a crowded passage, a slackening may be needed. Such modifications of tempo, known as tempo rubato—i.e., “robbed time”—are part of the music’s character.

C. The tempo of work is never inflexibly mathematical.

D. Rubato needs the framework of an inflexible beat from which it can depart and to which it must return.