On May 3, 2007, at 4:24 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
Damn. I thought the bar before the Glorification de L'Elue in the
Rite
was thirteen, but I checked the score and it's in fact eleven. So
maybe twelve is the absolute cut-off beyond which we can't conceive or
perceive of non-emphasised beats. (Wait, I just did perceive them in
my faulty memory, didn't I? ;) )
I defy any performer or listener to not group those 11 beats into
some accent pattern.
I don't. Never have. In my younger years I didn't even *count* the
beats in that bar--it was just (as it is clearly supposed to be) an
undifferentiated pounding that eventually gives way to something else.
Eleven beats (a prime number) was, I would suggest, deliberately chosen
by Stravinsky to meet the following criteria:
1) It must go on long enough to give the listener the impression that
it might well continue indefinitely.
2) Nonetheless, it should be the shortest possible measure that could
convey such an impression.
3) It should actively discourage the listener from imagining any kind
of subdivision.
I would consider any performance that worked against this conception to
be flawed.
Andrew Stiller
Kallisti Music Press
http://www.kallistimusic.com/
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