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Scan 207
An Encyclopedia of the Violin, 1925
23 lines. Read by computer on 28 September 2026. Printed page 179. See the scan on archive.org.
1The martelé, if taken rightly, means that the notes are played very short and with great strength:
3WRITTEN
4PLAYED
6RHYTHM
8What an austere and redoubtable word! The whole science of music is summed up in it.
10It might be said at once that the perfect "rhythmician" is extremely rare, and the fact that orchestral conductors pass years conducting orchestras does not prevent them from being without any rhythmic sense. Is it possible to conceive a musician without rhythm? It is not. And yet, there are a great number of musicians, who have risen high, who lack the rhythmic sense.
12Though there is every reason to believe that a sense of rhythm is, more or less, innate in the average human being, it is true, nevertheless, that where this is not the case it may be taught and developed.
14As a rule not much attention is paid to the rhythmic development of the student; though, in truth, it should be the object of special care.
16From the very beginning of the pupil's studies it is necessary to be absolutely inflexible as regards rhythm, and to prevent the student, by every possible means, from taking liberties with time and measure.
18That faithful auxiliary, the metronome, plays a most important part in musical education, and at least makes it possible for the student to avoid precipitating himself upon a passage as misery does on a hospital. A few examples will suffice to convince the reader as to his ignorance regarding rhythm. Play the following example, for instance, once through without the metronome beat, and the second time with the assistance of Maelzel's invention, with the quarter note at 120 on the scale:
20Romance in F – Beethoven
22You will at once realize that you are exaggerating the movement, and that you have, in reality, all the time necessary to play the phrase calmly. Matthias Lussy's famous book Rhythm presents a number of intensely interesting considerations regarding its subject, and at the beginning of the volume may be found the following:
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