taken in its whole length would be nearly inappreciable (as to number) to the eye. But let us cut the line into smaller portions, and then we can inspect and count it. Each portion must be of equal size, and then the whole will not only be divided, but also assume the appearance of order.

The smallest number of which these portions must consist, to have the desired effect, is two.

The division and arrangement of a line of notes into twos, thus for example,—

Therefore, in the four-part order, the part numbered 3 is an ex-chief part; in the six-part order, that numbered 4; in the nine-part, those numbered 4 and 7; and in the twelve-part, those numbered 4, 7, and 10, are ex-chief parts. In the twelve-part order, a preferential rank is attributed to the part numbered 7 over those numbered 4 and 10; for that number was the chief part in the preceding sixpart order.

It is easy to perceive, that besides the two simple orders of bars (the two and three-part) which we have been just now elucidating, other simple arrangements are imaginable; as for example, of five and seven parts, and from these, the combinations of ten and fourteen, and so forth: but we must pass them over; for on the one hand, they are never, or scarcely ever used ;* and on the other, the division into two and three parts, affords, with their derivatives, ample facilities for all the arrangements which can be required and understood

TIME SIGNATURE,

which is placed on the staff at the beginning of every composition, or at the place where a new kind of bar is required by the composition. It consists in general, of two figures, in the form of a fraction, one over the other; the upper of which (the numerator) indicates the order of the bar, and the un ter (the denominator) shows the size of the parts of the bar.

And for this reason, that these divisions, with one chief part against four, six and more secondary parts, have no such well measured or equipoised relationship as to fit them for the groundwork of a whole composition, extraordinary cases excepted. Nevertheless, that they are unnatural or incapable of being used (as some theorists have asserted) is undeniably contradicted by the popular song, Prince Eugen der edle Ritter, which goes very naturally in time, and cannot, without injury, be set in any other measure.-M.S., Erk & Irmer, German Popular Songs, Part I. The same will apply to the well-known English instance of Come stain your cheeks with nut or berry," from the Glee, "Oh, who has seen the miller's wife?"

2 or €

4. The (proper or great) alla breve bar, in which each bar contains two semibreves (brevis, page 27), and which is marked for C or also (in this last case, the same as the four crotchet bar). It seems more correct to consider it as a kind of four-part bar, as which it is again introduced into this list at No. 3. The four-part order gives

1. The four crotchet bar (called also whole bar), and marked C, instead of 4 2. The four quaver bar, .

3. The (rare) four minim bar, , which is also exchanged with the two semibreve bar, and is marked in the same way.

The three-part order gives1. The three crotchet bar, 2. 2. The three quaver bar, 3.

3. The (rare) three minim bar, The six-part order gives

1. The six quaver bar, §.

2. The (rare) six crotchet bar, q.

3. The (rare) six semiquaver bar, 16 The nine-part order gives

1. The nine quaver bar, g.

2. The (rare) nine crotchet bar, 2.
3. The (rare) nine semiquaver bar, 18.

9

Of the twelve-part order, we will mention only the Twelve Quaver bar, 12,

as the most used of this order, although the twelve semiquaver bar is sometimes met with, and even the twelve demisemiquaver bar. Occasionally composers have tried a

Five crotchet bar, {

and forms still more extraordinary, upon which we have remarked already, at page 34.*

The spaces between the sections in the ordering are called

BARS.

The perpendicular lines which we have used (page 34 and forward) in making the sections, are called

BAR-LINES.

The bar-lines are therefore boundary lines of the bars. Greater portions of a piece of music, or the conclusion of a movement or of a composition, are marked with double bar-lines, called the

SIGN OF CONCLUSION, OR CLOSE,

* However true our observations at that place may be, on the inappropriateness of such bars, and however small the pretensions of such unusual forms to be tolerated, when employed solely, perhaps, for the sake of a little cheap originality, still the composer must not be forbidden to use them when they appear natural and required. Such an occasion presents itself in the Oratorio Mosé, (in the Author's Klavierauszug, page 105,) where the five crotchet bar was neither sought nor arbitrarily adopted, but-at least in the conscience and apprehension of the composer-sprang, as it were, of necessity, out of the text and feeling.

conclusion of the first.

All the bars in a succession of bars are equal, as indeed follows from the idea of an order of bars; that is to say

1. They have an equal number of parts, 2. Those parts are equal.

In a composition in two crotchet time, every bar has the value of two crotchets; in a composition in three quaver time, every bar has the value of three quavers.

But these contents of a bar may be composed of any number of notes within the value of the bar. Each part of the bar may therefore be a single note, thus :

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(a)

(b)

the rest in the second bar means a bar rest of three crotchets, although otherwise, as a rest in general, equivalent to four crotchets. In the two crotchets passage marked (b), the rest in the third bar, equal in general to two semibreves or eight crotchets, is here the equivalent of only two bars or four crotchets. Half bars, however, are always written with rests of their exact value. Thus in a six quaver bar, a halfbar rest would not be indicated by a minim rest, but by three quaver rests, or one crotchet and one quaver rests.

In long rests, comprehending many bars, it is usual to write the number of bars in figures over the rests; for example:

Here, first, the group of four quavers is to be repeated once, then the group of semiquavers, three times, and then in the third bar, the second bar is to be repeated altogether. This abreviation is used also in the following form

In strictness, the word sim. or simile ought not to be absent; for this abreviation, No. 81, might also be played so

83.

or rather, it ought to have been so understood, according to the rule above-mentioned.

SEVENTH SECTION.-MANAGEMENT AND
DIVISION OF BARS.

All compositions (at least with few exceptions) are written in a determined measure (fixed bar), which is signified at the beginning.

But one and the same kind of bar is not continued throughout. Now and then CHANGES OF MEASURE,

Such

as they are technically called, intervene. changes may even occur several times in the same composition. For instance, a piece of music may begin in three-part order, from that pass to the twopart, and then return to the three-part.*

The change of measure occurs, in general, only

*Such a change (among others) occurs in the Scherzo in Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony; wherein three and four-part measure exchange twice-and the close is in three-part

Here we have a passage out of the Andante of Mozart's Symphony in C major. The movement is in measure, as the passage itself is noted; nevertheless the measure reigns in it, in a manner not to be mistaken. Mozart formed the melody in four groups of two crotchets, and has indicated their connexion by binds. The bass in four groups of every four quavers, the horns sounding four notes in

measure, the marking of the fand p (of which we shall speak in the tenth section)-everything convinces us of the change of measure, without any

*The composer, however, has good reason occasionally for departing from this assumption; which, nevertheless, must certainly be considered as the rule. Thus in a change of to measure, in the oratorio of Mosé, Klavierauszug, page 28, the composer wished here, at the introduction of the measure, that two quavers should have the same value as three in the former () measure-therefore, rigidly speaking, he ought to have employed the measure instead of the . But he preferred this latter measure in order to secure the smooth flow of the quavers

(see the 10th section of this book). In the score, page 49, every kind of doubt ceases: for therein, the same figure (as double triplet) which existed also in the measure, appears in measure.

The extract is imperfect, it contains merely what concerned the bar.

The under-current of measure is made observable here merely by the sameness of the proceeding in melody and harmony, by crotchets two by two. The figures placed underneath will make the measure of both passages perceptible.

We have already learned that all the bars of one determined measure, contain the same number of parts; and as these are all equal, those bars must be of equal size or quantity, although this quantity may be represented by notes and rests of different values: thus, for example, a bar in a passage in four crotchets must contain either four crotchets, or one semibreve, or two minims, or eight quavers, or equivalent rests, &c., or two crotchet or four quaver triplets, and so forth; or mixtures of all these quantities to the amount of four crotchets. Of course in performance every part must be produced with its duly allotted measure or value.

But how is this to be done? If every note were to be measured by itself, a variety of notation would occasion the greatest confusion. In this passage, for example

87.

there are minims, quaver triplets, semiquavers, &c., to be measured. The minims would furnish no measure for the quaver triplet, these, none for the semiquavers, and so one would confound the other.

This difficulty ceases when a fundamental measure for the estimation of the value or quantity of each single note is established, and for such a fundamental measure we employ again the

PARTS OF THE BAR.

We reckon to what notes the first, second, &c. parts of the bar will amount. We see then, at least in the gross, the quantity of duration fixed. So in the preceding passage, for example, each note of the first bar contains two parts, and these latter are crotchets; each triplet of quavers in the following bar, one part; and so forth. We know so far, at least, that the three first notes of the second bar are to have the length of a crotchet only, and that the second crotchet must begin with the tone D; that

the notes, d, e, c, are not to have more nor less, duration than the first triplet, &c.*

Now, after this procedure in the gross, there remain only groups of much smaller notes to measure and reckon. These are naturally much easier to divide, and moreover a small failure in them is not so injurious in effect. If, for example, the notes of the first triplet were not measured and performed in perfect equality with respect to each other, but erroneously in some degree, as if they had been written thus

must be counted: for example, instead of four crotchets, eight quavers; or in difficult cases, still smaller subdivisions.

After these explanations, the dividing of the bars can have no peculiar difficulty.

If the passage, No. 71, for example, were to be divided, it strikes the eye at once that two and again two quavers in the first bar, and four and again four semiquavers in the third bar, make each a crotchet, that is, altogether four crotchets. In the second bar g is a crotchet, therefore it is the first part, and consequently the dot and quaver must be the second part. In the last bar the last note is a crotchet, and consequently the second part of the bar, therefore the preceding notes must together form a part. If one were to divide into members of the bar, the quaver c would be the first member, consequently the following notes, g and e, must form together the second member.

This process is facilitated in difficult cases, by first separating and estimating the easiest groups. Thus here,

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in the first place, the fourth crotchet is immediately recognized as contained in the last three notes. The two quavers in the middle of the bar make also a crotchet; so we suppose at once that the preceding notes form the first crotchet. Then there remain only the groups of notes between the second and fourth parts, and upon these groups depends the most important point, that they should contain exactly the third part, as they must necessarily end in time for the beginning of the fourth part, which is unquestionably at g.

The mode of notation affords great facilities to the dividing of the bars. All the notes, excepting semibreves, minims, and crotchets, may be so grouped together, that from the binding only, the halves or

+ Sometimes this grouping is partially avoided, in order to shew that the members of a bar are not connected together solely, but are some of them, to a certain degree, engaged with other members. Here, for example,―

92.

we see, in the upper succession of notes, the first of four semiquavers constantly separated until the last group, where it assumes the regular form. In the 2nd bar this semiquaver remains alone, while the others are grouped. In the 3rd and 4th bars the first separated semiquaver is united with the three last of the preceding bars. This method of notation has been carried to excess, particularly in modern compositions called Chamber music, in order to ensure as far as possible its faultless and passionate execution. This form,92A.