Rhythm and tempo : a study in music history / by Curt Sachs.
| Author/creator | Sachs, Curt |
| Format | Book |
| Edition | First edition. |
| Publication Info | New York : W. W. Norton & Company, ©1953. |
| Description | 391 pages : music ; 25 cm |
| Subjects |
| Contents | Elementary principles. What is rhythm? ; Rhythm and form ; The aesthetic experience ; Freedom and strictness ; Classification ; Tempo -- Beginnings and primitive stage. The body's motion ; Adaptation ; Polyrhythm ; Non-adaptation ; Accent and meter ; Motor types ; Sex ; Childhood ; Other conditions of rhythm -- The far east. The historical situation ; The absence of meter ; Rhythmical weakness ; Square rhythm ; Classicistic staticism ; Unclassicistic dynamism ; Drum patterns ; Free rhythm -- Ancient Israel and the beginnings of the Eastern church. Rhythm in words and in music ; Biblical poetry ; Shakespearian and other parallels ; Biblical cantillation ; Stricter rhythm ; The eastern Christian church -- The near and Middle East. Early poetic meters ; Rhythms specifically musical ; Drum patterns ; Additive rhythm and the lack of harmony ; Free rhythm ; Tempo ; Berbers and bedouins -- India. Vedic rhythm ; Sanskrit meter ; Talas ; The drum patterns ; Tempo ; Upbeat and downbeat ; Rhythmical freedom -- Greece and Rome. Music and poetry ; The meters and their units of time ; A critical comment ; Ethos ; The cretic ; The anapest ; Thesis and arsis ; Homogenous polypodies ; Heterogenous polypodies ; Metricists and rhythmicists ; Stress ; Evolution ; The Roman phase -- The early and high Middle Ages. Division of the Middle Ages ; Lack of interest in rhythm ; Hymns and sequences ; The chant ; Polyphony ; 'Perfection' ; Modi ; Polymodality and ordines ; Emergence and decline of the modi ; Modal and mensural notation ; Additive and divisive rhythms ; Secular songs ; Dance music -- The later Middle Ages. The fourteenth century ; Isorhythm ; New notational symbols ; Perfection and imperfection ; Time signatures of the fourteenth century ; Divisiones ; Dotting ; Metric alterations ; Gothic restiveness ; The Italians versus the French ; Italian art -- The Renaissance: Concepts of rhythm and tempo. Time signatures of the fifteenth century ; Tempo, standard and strict ; Proportions ; Proportional signatures ; The meaning of proportional writing ; The limitations of proportional practice ; Binary tactus ; The diminution and consistency of binary rhythm ; The advance of duple time ; Ternary tactus ; Proportz ; Double emploi ; Variation suite -- The Renaissance: Rhythmical styles. The early Renaissance ; Flamboyant polyrhythm ; The high Renaissance ; The pitfalls of time signatures ; Vers mesures and humanism ; Music to words or music with words? ; Bar lines ; Upbeats ; The late Renaissance -- The Baroque. Decline of the proportions ; Modern tempi ; Expressiveness ; Instrumental freedom ; Baroque classicism ; Triple and quadruple time ; Hemiola -- Le style galant and the age of enlightenment. Circumlocution, femininity, and douce maniere ; Appoggiatura ; Metric alteration ; Lombardian taste ; Double dot ; Duplets against triplets ; Tempo rubato ; The relative tempo ; Metronomic tempi ; Classicistic and anti-classicistic tempo -- Romanticism. Beethoven's tempo ; Beethoven's rhythm ; Early Romanticism ; East European rhythms ; Quintuple time ; Free and flexible rhythm ; Clustered upbeats ; Rhythmic Gestalten ; Rebirth of additive rhythm -- The present. New time signatures ; Futurism ; Rag and jazz ; Rag and jazz in highbrow music ; Additive and numerical rhythms ; The ballet ; Tempo. |
| Abstract | This is the first book to trace the history of rhythm and tempo in its entirety. The author brings to this study a vast knowledge of the musical lore of all cultures, East and West, from the most distant past to the present. There are more than 200 musical examples included ranging from the native songs of Asia and Africa to rumba, jazz, and Stravinsky. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical footnotes and index. |
| LCCN | 52004911 |
Availability
| Library | Location | Call Number | Status | Item Actions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Music | Music Stacks | ML437.S3 R5 | ✔ Available | Place Hold |