On RYTHMICAL MEASURE&. 63 



times, we are told, been attempted alfo in modern mufic, but 

 never with fuccefs, and are now univerfally laid afide *. 



Besides the powers which we have of dividing and fubdi- 

 viding fmall equal intervals or units of time, and of counting 

 them off by equal fucceflive parcels, we have flill the farther 

 power of combining together certain numbers of thefe parcels, 

 or of feeling fuch combinations, and confidering them as 

 fomething feparate and diftind from what went before and 

 what is to come after. We make thefe combinations by twos, 

 by threes and by fours, rarely I believe by any other num- 

 bers. The parcels by which we firft count off the intervals, 

 are, in modern mufic, called bars, being marked in writing by 

 perpendicular lines drawn acrofs the Have. Combinations of 

 two, three or four of thefe bars are called mufical phrafes or 

 ftrains. The firft note of every bar is accented f . In parcels 

 of four, the third, being the firft of a pair is alfo accented, but 

 not fo ftrongly as the firft. 



This 



* The ancients defined certain meafures, which they confidcred as aggregates of five 

 and of feven, as meafures of which rythmical fuceeffions might be formed. Thefe 

 they fuppofed to be made up of lefTer meafures, bearing to one another, in the one cafe, 

 the fefquialter proportion, or that of two to three, and in the other cafe the epitrite 

 proportion, or that of three to four. Whether they had, or could have, a diftinft feel- 

 ing of thefe numbers, upon hearing a fuccefTion of fuch meafures exprefTed in fyllables, 

 or whether fuch a fuccefTion could be exprefTed fo as to communicate fuch a feeling, are 

 matters with regard to which I am much inclined to doubt. We may indeed conceive 

 aggregates of five to be formed by counting off twos and threes, or threes and twos 

 alternately ; and, in like manner, aggregates of feven, by counting off threes and fours, 

 or fours and threes. This, however, can hardly be done, unlefs the fingle times are of 

 fuch magnitude, as that they may be confidered as units of time, which is not the cafe 

 with the Ihort fyllables of words. Even when the fingle times are fufficiently large, the 

 counting them off by alternate even and odd number*, is a difficult, perhaps an unna- 

 tural operation. It requires fuch a conflant and even painful effort of the attention, as 

 is inconfiftent with that eafe and fimplicity of conception and operation, which is elTen- 

 tial to every thing that is agreeable. If the attention is relaxed, we mult either hold 

 entirely by one number, or run into confufion. 



•{■. 1 HAVE here ufed the term accent in its mufical acceptation, to denote that imagi- 

 nary degree of force or emphafi' which a found acquires from the circumftance of its 

 being the firll of a parcel in a rythmical fuccefTion. 



