On RYTHMICAL MEASURES. 6$ 



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

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



Besides the powers which we have of dividing and fubdb- 

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

 them off by equal fucceffive parcels, we have ftill the farther 

 power of combining together certain numbers of thefe parcels, 

 or of feeling fuch combinations, and considering them as 

 fomething feparate and diftindl 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 firfl count off the intervals, 

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

 perpendicular lines drawn acrofs the ftave. Combinations of 

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

 flrains. The firfl note of every bar is accented f. In parcels 

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

 not fo flrongly as the firfl. 



This 



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

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

 they fuppofed to be made up of leffer 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 diftindt feel- 

 ing of thefe numbers, upon hearing a fucceffion of fuch meafures expreffed in fyllables, 

 or whether fuch a fucceffion could be exprefled 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 fhort fyllables of words. Even when the fingle times are fufneiently large, the 

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

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

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

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

 entirely by one number, or run into confufion. 



•}-, I have here ufed the term accent in its mufical acceptation, to denote that imagi- 

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

 being the firfl of a parcel in a rythmical fucceffion. 



