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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



If with the eye fixed on the second-hand of a watch or a clock the 

 long meter doxology be sung, every one of the equally accented notes 

 entering simultaneously with the tick of each consecutive second, it will 

 become at once apparent that the melody is delivered at a rhythmic 

 rate of sixty beats to the minute. Should one in the same breath hum 

 Yankee-doodle, sounding each of its accented notes, at the same rate, 

 it will be found that these two melodies, standing at the extremes of 

 the sublime and the ridiculous, the one in character slow, the other fast, 

 the first combining the utmost dignity and breadth, the second ludi- 

 crously vapid and thoughtless, are both set to precisely the same length 

 of rh3'thmic time by the clock. In the same manner the adagios, 

 allegros, prestos of the great master's sonatas unfold to pretty much 

 the same span of a passing moment. In his sonata 'Les Adieux,' op. 

 81, the adagio or slow movement and the allegro or fast movement are 

 both set to one rhythmic unit to the second. The impression of slow- 

 ness or rapidity in the music is due rather to the character of the con- 

 text and the number of notes to be played in the divisions within the 

 minute than to the actual clock time it takes to perform the rhythmic 

 unit. 



Seventeen letters were addressed to as many band-masters asking 

 them for the 'beat' usually used in their conducting. The answers 

 invariably brought 'from 64 to 72 rhythmic beats per minute,' that 

 being probably the time to which countless soldiers had found it most 

 convenient and agreeable to march. Those wishing to investigate on 

 their own account will find it interesting to clutch at their pulse, 

 whenever a whistling street boy passes, and even a jangling hotel piano 

 might in the same connection have sometimes a 'reason for being.' 

 ]\Iore often than accident warrants, it will be found that these also 

 'with nature's heart in tune' were 'concerting harmonies,' 



Metronoiiiic Markings pek Rhythm of the Different Movements of 



Twelve Beethoven Sonatas. 



