Engraving style – rubato

How would you input the word “rubato”?

On the Internet I found:

rubato , (from Italian rubare, “to rob”), in music, subtle rhythmic manipulation and nuance in performance. For greater musical expression, the performer may stretch certain beats, measures, or phrases and compact others. The technique is seldom indicated on a musical score

(Expresson and technique?)

Would you write it as expression text or use some other function (which?)

Would you always place it with “tempo words” (rit., accel., …) over the music?

TIA.

I would use Playing Technique text or Staff Text. In the example you pictured, rubato should have been moved slightly to the left, so as to not break the barline. Between staves is fine because it applies to both.

I disagree with the internet - this directive is used quite often.

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Or we might clarify that in certain music it is employed much more often than you find it written!

Often I will input a direction like this as dynamics (shift-D popover), and add “rubato” as a suffix; then hide the dynamic marking. A little bit of a hack perhaps, but I find myself doing it a lot; the font size and italics look just right.

I have a Paragraph Style for ‘expressions’, to which I’ve assigned the shortcut Shift E.

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