32 THE NATURE OF MUSIC 



In the above examples each pulse, each group of 

 pulses, each combination of groups, is a period of 

 rhythm. Henceforth in these pages the term period 

 will be employed exclusively in this connection with 

 rhythm. Rhythm-periods are balanced h'm^-periods. 

 Rhythmic accents are balance-generating and balance- 

 maintaining time-accents. A period of time is a 

 rhythmic moment, a time-accent is an accentual 

 moment in feeling and consciousness. Under the sway 

 of innate rhythm the inner consciousness moves 

 forward in time from pulse to pulse, from accent to 

 accent, in other words, from moment to moment, from 

 now to now. We shall analyze this forward move- 

 ment in time, and shall study the psychology of this 

 moment, this accent, this now; it holds the secret of 

 music and of common music-feeling. 



Rhythmic feeling, in obedience to the indwelling 

 shaping principle, impels us to vary the accents of 

 successive pulses or moments so that heavier accents 

 so alternate with lighter accents that they recur at 

 regular intervals of time, thus forming regular groups 

 and maintaining the rhythmic balance. In the above 

 examples the sign > indicates the heavy accents, and 

 the examples show that the difference between one ele- 

 mentary rhythmic form and another is a difference in 

 the order of heavy and light accents. Thus the two 

 forms of dual rhythm are light-heavy and heavy-light, 

 while the three forms of triple rhythm are light-light- 

 heavy, light-Z^^av^z-light, heavy -light-light. All music- 

 rhythms are based upon these five elementary forms. 

 These accents of varying intensities, their regular 

 alternations and the recurrent heavy accents are of 



