SOME EVIDENCE FOR THE NATURALNESS OF THE LESS USUAL RHYTHMS

Abstract

THE notation employed by the musicians of the early church made no attempt at definite determination of either pitch or rhythm. No one can ever know just how any melody was rendered. And it is probable that no two localities gave just the same interpretation. Modern notation is an attempt to remedy this defect. Of necessity the change from the indefinite to the definite occasioned a more or less rigid classification of rhythms. Those rhythms in which the accent recurred periodically were considered the best. It mattered not whether this accent came every two beats or only every three beats. Nor did it matter whether there were only one such accent between bar lines (2-4 or 3-4), or whether there were two or three or even four (as in 4-8, 9-8 or 12-8). The essential point was the regularly recurring periodicity of these accents. Alternations of duple and triple rhythms were considered artificial. The simplest alternation of these rhythms gives quintuple rhythm. More complicated forms are the septuple and the nonuple. Some composers have used the less usual rhythms very effectively, sometimes to avoid any feeling of dance rhythm, and to obtain the effect of sublime exaltation (DvoFak's On the Holy Mount, written in 5-4), and sometimes to secure a rollicking dance rhythm (Tschaikowsky's Symphonie PathItique). These and others are acknowledged to be beautiful and successful, but are called exceptional. Generally, also, the program will mention the rhythm, thus emphasizing the fact that it is not in conformity with the customary rhythms. But are these less used rhythms violations of a law of the human mind and of art, or merely of the laws of scholasticism? Can not evidence be adduced to show that these exceptions are as natural as are the common rhythms, although they are not the offspring of lesser minds, as yet? The academic training often clips the wings of even the stronger intellects and prevents their soaring to heights they might otherwise have achieved. This is