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TIME. 



lar things and events, the great motions of the 

 heavenly bodies, which always remain the Fame, 

 particularly of those bodies which are most closely 

 connected with the earth, have been taken as 

 standards; hence the physical or astronomical time. 

 Such a measure of time is afforded, by nature her- 

 self, in the apparent daily revolution of the heavenly 

 arch, i. e. the rotation of the earth on its axis. 

 This gives rise to the sidereal time. But as the 

 sidereal time will not serve for the purposes of 

 common life, it was necessary to resort to the solar 

 time. The latter, indeed, is unequal, and neither 

 agrees accurately with the sidereal time, nor with 

 that indicated by a clock ; but this evil is remedied 

 by the equation of time, through which the true 

 solar time is changed into mean time. 



Time, in music and rhythm; the measure by 

 which a series of tones or sounds is uniformly 

 divided ; next, the various modes of this division, 

 and the division itself (as when we say, This singer 

 does not keep time'). Time has nothing to do 

 with the height or depth of the tones, and can 

 exist without these distinctions, but not without 

 a variety of duration and accent, since without 

 such variety we cannot conceive a connected 

 series of tones or motions (for in dancing, too, 

 we speak of time) as constituting a whole. In 

 order to do this, it is necessary that the successive 

 sounds or motions should appear to us as portions 

 of divisions recurring periodically, because in this 

 uniform recurrence we perceive that uniformity in 

 variety which is essential to time. Time, there- 

 fore, in music, corresponds to symmetry in those 

 objects which occupy space. But it is not only 

 necessary to perceive that each division of the series 

 of tones or motions, which is called in music a bar, 

 is of equal duration with the others ; all the bars 

 must also be perceived to correspond with each 

 other as to the parts of which they are composed. 

 Otherwise, the perception of uniform progress 



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would be destroyed ; if, for instance, j- time and -^ 



should continually and regularly follow each other 

 in such a way that each bar should occupy precisely 

 the same time, the parts of one bar would be at 

 variance with those of the other ; the accent would 

 not be the same ; the feeling of symmetry and a 

 well-ordered whole would be destroyed. As sym- 

 metry delights through the eye, so time does through 

 the ear. (See Rhythm, Music, Dancing.') Time, 

 again, varies according to its component parts ; 

 hence the different kinds of time. It varies ac- 

 cording to the number of the parts which compose 

 it, and the accent depending thereupon. First, 

 there is even time (i. e. time the parts of which 

 form an even number), and uneven. The former 

 is simple if it consists of two, the latter if it con- 

 sists of three chief parts. The simple even time is 

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-j- and - time ; the compound is -r- time, (also 



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marked thus, C), and ^ time. The ^ time, ac- 

 cording to Mr Apel, a German, who has written 



4 

 much on rhythm, &c., is only -^ on a reduced scale : 



2 * 

 still quicker and easier is the g- time, which is not 



2 

 much used : on the other hand, time, or alla- 



breve time, is performed more slowly and heavily 



2. 

 than T time, and allows therefore, no smaller notes 



4 



than an eighth. The even time cannot well have 



more than eight even portions, because a greater 

 number could not be perceived as forming a regular 

 period, so that the essence of time would be lost. 

 The uneven time, which affords a greater variety, 



can be reduced to the j time. A shorter duration 



of the three equal parts gives rise to the time, a 



g 

 longer duration to the -g time. By multiplying the 



three, we obtain the heavy 7^, -, and the easy (> 



99 12 24 



j-, -g, and the -g time, which form the rest of tlio 



uneven kinds of time. The two latter are not often 

 used. Beyond twelve uneven parts, there would, 

 again, be no distinct perception ; therefore the time 

 could not be distinguished. Other uneven num. 

 bers, as 5 and 7, do not form kinds of time, because, 

 according to Apel, they consist of even and uneven 

 numbers. Therefore all uneven times were for- 

 merly called triple times; as only those uneven 

 times which originate from three parts, are natural 

 to the ear. A time consisting of one portion 

 only would be impossible, as time requires a 

 uniformity of the various, a periodicality. From 

 all this it appears that the kinds of time are not 

 arbitrary inventions, as Rousseau seems to think. 

 Uneven time is considered livelier than even. 

 As to the parts of time, they derive different values 

 from the accent. Accordingly we distinguish good 

 and bad notes (notes being the parts of divisions ol 

 time, or bars, in music"), nota buona, and nota catti- 

 va, thesis and arsis. A good or heavy note is that 

 which has the accent, and in vocal music requires a 

 long syllable ; a bad one has a short syllable. Good 

 notes, in the even species of time, are the first 

 (thesis), which has absolutely the greatest stress, 

 because it decides the beginning of the bar. If the 



4 

 half bars of ^-time are changed into quarters, the 



first and third quarters receive the accent, the lat- 

 ter, however, a weaker one. A still weaker ac- 

 cent is given to the third and sixth eighth, if the 

 quarters are changed into eighths. In the uneven 



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time, the first ^- has again the accent in the * time, 



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and in the first and fourth -^ have the greatest 



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stress, the second and fifth a proportionally weaker 

 stress, and so on. That the various species of time 

 are distinguished by variety of accent, even if the 

 notes are of equal value, we see, e. g. by a com- 



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parison of ^- and -7, also of V and 5- time , because 

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r 



is accentuated thus, 

 2 



-L-C-L L 



6 

 4 



further, 



3 



4 



This the composer has to refer to the words which 



