Metronome

“ Thus we have always at hand both a more or less efficient bodily metronome in the pulse and in respiration, and also a "cerebral metronome" capable not only of easy adjustment to different rates of speed but also of that subtlest of modulations which psychologists call the 'elastic unit,' and which musicians, though not so definitely or surely, recognize as tempo rubato.
The sense of rhythm, as has been said, differs remarkably in different individuals—just as the sense of touch, of smell, of hearing. ”

“ The metronome mark establishes the general movement, and that is all. [Pg 174]
Any music-lover who desires to find out the right tempo of a metronomed composition can do so by using a watch with a second hand. If he times the number of measures to be played in five or ten seconds, he can get at the tempo. Similarly, he can “hold the watch” on a conductor in the performance of any piece with an established tempo. ”

“ On these principles, imagining a composer seated quietly at his desk in the act of composition, is it not feasible to suppose that sub consciously to himself, and for want of a more intimately sympathetic conductor, a physical metronome was within him deflecting his rhythm to its standard? Contrary to the other arts, music has its birth and being entirely from within the human brain, and from within has been impressed a beat of far more rapid rate than the ictus of the recurrent industries already cited on its musical product. ”

“ The musical world knows, that marking the time by a metronome is but a slight guide for performers and conductors. Its object is to show the general time of a movement, particularly at its commencement; but it is not to be followed strictly throughout; for no piece, except a march or a dance, would have any real life and expression, or light and shade, if the Solo performer, or the orchestra under its conductor, were strictly to adhere to one and the same tempo, without regard to the many marks which command its variations. ”

“ I have even devoted a chapter to the metronome in the Progressive Series, my great work on piano playing." Edwin Hughes remarks: "If pupils have naturally a poor sense of rhythm, there is no remedy equal to practising with the metronome, using it daily until results are evident, when there can be a judicious letting up of the discipline. The mechanical sense of rhythm, the ability to count and to group the notes of a piece correctly, can be taught to any person, if one has the patience ”

“ Although “Maelzel’s metronome” has universal acceptance, the silent metronome and still more Weber’s graduated ribbon are greatly to be preferred, for the clock-work of the other is liable to be out of order, and needs a nicety of regulation which is almost impossible; for instance, when Sir George Smart had to mark the traditional times of the several pieces in the Dettingen Te Deum, he tested them by twelve metronomes, no two of which beat together. ”

“ That the rhythmical phases which appear in the accompaniment are not due to inequality in the stimulation intervals, is shown by the reversal of relations between the metronome and its accompaniment which occur in the midst of a continuous series of taps. To speak roughly, a break occurs every twentieth beat. ”

“ He behaves, to take an example from our metronome experiments, in the same way as we do in listening to a certain rhythm, which we are hearing into the uniform beats of the metronome, or again, as we do when we beat with our finger a certain predetermined rhythm. ”

“ If the conductor possess neither the author's instructions, tradition, nor metronome indications,—which frequently happens in the ancient masterpieces, written at a period when the metronome was not invented,—he has no other guide than the vague terms employed to designate the time to be taken, and his own instinct, his feeling—more or less distinguishing, more or less just—of the author's style. ”

“ The metronome indication, found at the beginning of most modern scores. The tempo or mood expressions (andante, allegro, adagio, et cetera) , which have been in universal use for two centuries or more, and which are found in practically all music, even when a metronome indication is also given. The swing and, in vocal music, the general spirit of the text. Tradition. Individual judgment of tempo as depending upon and resulting from the "quality" of the music. Of these, the fifth, viz., individual judgment is most important, and is the court of final resort in the case of the mature musician ”

“ Nothing could be more difficult than to produce feeling and harmony, while working by the metronome; for a musician, playing as his sense of music dictates, never plays with a metronome, and is not therefore checked in his musical expression. ”

“ Let us return to our metronome. If we let one single beat work upon consciousness and then immediately arrest the pendulum, we have a psychical element. Such a beat cannot in general be further disintegrated if we, as can easily be done in such a case, abstract from the fact that we hear it from some special direction in space, &c. ”

“ A most important form of fusion consists of the impressions of our sense of hearing and of our organs of locomotion. These impressions are the intermediaries of our ideas of time. If we divide up into their elements the processes of consciousness caused by metronome beats of a medium rapidity, we find two classes—those that belong to the class of sensations and those that belong to feelings. As sensations we have first of all the single metronome beats divided from each other by empty intervals. ”

“ In 1881, M. A. P. Hodgson, an engineer of Paris, took out a patent (No. 573) for an 'Apparatus for correctly transcribing musical compositions.' The instrument is termed by the inventor the 'Pianograph Metronome.' To judge from the specification and drawings attached to the patent, this apparatus was of the most complicated description. The machine was furnished with a metronome for governing the rate of motion at which a cylinder should revolve, and so regulating the time; this had to be mathematically exact, otherwise the mechanism would not synchronise with the player. ”

“ When, to vary the nature of the impression to which the attention is directed, a metronome is used, and to insure attention on the part of the subject he is required to count the strokes, it may be that another form of involuntary movement appears. The tendency to beat time to enlivening music by tapping with the hands, or stamping with the feet, or nodding with the head, is most familiar ”

“ In our diagram each row, A and B, contains sixteen separate beats, or, taking one rise and fall together, eight double beats. If we listen attentively to a row of beats of this length when the metronome is going at a medium rapidity of, say, 1 to 1 1⁄2 seconds, and then after a short pause repeat a row of exactly the same length, we recognise immediately the identity of the two. In the same way a difference will be immediately noticed, if the second row is only by one beat longer or shorter than the first. It is immaterial whether we beat in ascending or descending rhythm. ”

“ Even those people who have a great aptitude for feeling "time" and who play with special attention to exactness of measure, know that they cannot follow the metronome without positive discomfort. Children feel the rhythm of a piece of music if it is played with musical feeling; and not only do they follow the time with their footsteps, but, as the rhythmic periods vary, they adapt the whole attitude of their bodies to the melodic period, which is developed around the beats constituting the rhythm as around points of support. ”

“ When the observer tries to mark the ticking as accurately as possible, not only does the index of his motor reactions become more constant, but the sounds of the instrument likewise appear more uniform. The observers report also that at one and the same time they are aware of the regularity of the metronome and the rhythmical nature of their tapping, while yet the conviction remains that the accompaniment has been in time with the beats. ”

“ A very good Metronome may be made by fastening a bullet to the end of a piece of tape, and swinging it backwards and forwards, regulating the tape according to the time required. Such a Metronome is very portable, and extremely useful where the conveyance of the clockwork instrument would be troublesome. Moreover, its beats can be seen by a great number of persons. ”

“ The word applies not only to speed, but to the manner of interpreting the music. The metronome marks over two movements, one labelled 'Allegro agitato,' and the other, 'Allegro vivace,' might be exactly of the same value; the difference between the two would be entirely one of style. The Vivace in the latter case would imply an absence of passion or excitement, an even rate of speed, and a bright and cheerful character. The direction used by itself at the beginning of a movement is time-honoured ”

“ Although the experiment described was only meant to serve as a test for the metronome, yet we can derive from it a remarkable psychological result. For we notice in this experiment that it is really extraordinarily difficult to hear the beats in absolutely the same intensity, or, to put it in other words, to hear unrhythmically. Again and again we recur to the ascending or descending beat. We can express this phenomenon in this sentence: Our consciousness is rhythmically disposed. ”

“ If he has not had the opportunity of receiving his instructions directly from the composer, or if the times have not been transmitted to him by tradition, he must have recourse to the indications of the metronome, and study them well; the majority of composers, nowadays, taking the precaution to write them at the beginning, and in the course, of their pieces. ”

“ But in every score or so of beats a stroke out of series would be interpolated, [335] giving the form | 1 >2 1 2 >1 |; the accompaniment being coördinated during the second portion of the whole series with opposite phases of the metronome from those with which its elements were connected in the earlier part. Moreover, the dependence of this grouping of the sounds on subjective attitudes may readily be made to appear. When attention is turned keenly on the process its phases of rhythmical differentiation decline; when the accompaniment becomes mechanical they mount in value. ”

“ The rules we have given will ensure mechanical correctness in beating Time. But, the iron strictness of a Metronome, though admirable in its proper place, is very far from being the only qualification needed to form a good Conductor, who must not only know how to beat Time with precision, but must also learn to beat it easily and naturally, and with just so much action as may suffice to make the motion of his Bâton seen and understood by every member of the Orchestra, and no more. ”

“ In the old instruments the slowest movement that could be marked was 50, and the fastest 160; the present extends as far as 40 for slow movements, and 208 for quick, that is to say, 10 vibrations slower and 48 quicker than the precedent ones. The improvements made by Mr. Maelzel in his metronome, instead of increasing, have tended to diminish its cost; and we are of opinion that the degree of facility with which new and useful ideas in the cultivation of the arts and sciences can be circulated, ought to be taken into consideration ”

“ Warmth and cold are themselves exciting and subduing. The straining and relaxing feelings are dependent upon the temporal course and succession of sensations; the interminable pedal-point in E♭ with which Wagner begins the Ring sets up a feeling of tension which is relaxed when the B♭ is added, only to grow again, and again relax when new tones are introduced; and if you follow the strokes of a slow-beating metronome you get a similar alternation of the two sense-feelings. ”

“ A striking example of this occurred with respect to the ninth Symphony, which he first metronomised for the publisher, and then several months afterwards for the Philharmonic Society of London. [132] In the latter instance he made the signs for every movement differ from those which he had adopted in the former case; making the tempi sometimes quicker and sometimes slower; and when I accidentally found the copy of the first metronomising which he had marked for the Messrs. Schott, he answered impatiently, "Better no metronome! [133] He who has correct feeling has no need of it ”

“ The player or conductor, who enters into the time and spirit of the piece must feel when and where he has to introduce the necessary changes: and these are often of so delicate a nature, that the marks of the metronome would become superabundant, not to say impossible. This duly considered, the differences in the metronomic signs here denounced will be found too trifling to draw forth such animadversions.—ED.
[127] In Op. 27 both title and dedication vary from the mode in which they are given by the composer. The following are the words written by Beethoven, which refer specially to No. ”

“ Not only so, but the amplitude of vibration in the one will determine the amplitude of vibration in the other, for the intensity of the induced current is determined by the amplitude of the inducing vibration, and the amplitude of the vibration at the receiving end depends upon the intensity of the attractive impulses. When we sing into a piano, certain of the strings of the instrument are set in vibration sympathetically by the action of the voice with different degrees of amplitude, and a sound, which is an approximation to the vowel uttered, is produced from the piano. ”