SUBDIVISION
Employment of the “subdivision” to emphasize and give weight to certain characteristic passages, ritenuti, etc.
By subdividing the beats in the fourth measure of the following example, force and accent are given to the phrase.
Ninth Symphony—Beethoven
The sharply accented beat as a means of obtaining precision in syncopated figures.
By accenting the first and third beats of measures (1) and (2) of the following example, a certain lingering on the tied notes will be avoided.
Prelude to “The Mastersingers”—Wagner
To secure a firm “attaque” of the horns in the fourth measure, subdivide the second beat of the measure.
Slow 4 in a measure
Symphony No. 5— Dvorak
To secure precision in the syncopated entrances, subdivide the 4-in-a-measure as indicated by the numbers, using gesture No. 15. (p 47)
To secure precision in the unison pizzicato notes, subdivide the second beat in the first two measures, giving all the beats but this one with a small gesture.
Les Preludes. Liszt
To bring out the climax at letter (C) subdivide the measure at (B) with heavy decisive strokes on each 8th note.
Les Preludes. Liszt
To indicate places for taking breath, conduct in the manner described below. The arm movement must come to a complete stop just before the breathing place.
CHAPTER V
Some Special Problems
of Baton Technic
In his excellent article of “Conducting” in Grove’s Dictionary, Ralph Vaughan-Williams gives the following rule: “As a general rule no more strokes should be used than are absolutely necessary to mark the time”; for instance no bar should be beaten in three strokes that can be beaten in one, no bar should be beaten in four strokes that can be beaten in two.
This rule is unassailable but there are times when it is difficult for the conductor to judge which style of time-beating to use. The Adagio and Allegro of the Overture to “The Magic Flute” are good examples of such a difficulty.
The Adagio is marked
and is usually taken in four moderate beats. The Allegro has no alla breve
mark and yet should be taken in two moderate beats.
To beat the Allegro in four gives it precision but takes away from the light and graceful airiness of the figure by giving undue prominence to the third beat. In any 4/4 or 4/8 gesture the third beat is apt to get almost as strong an accent as the first.
The Allegro Vivace of Mozart’s “Jupiter Symphony” is also taken alla breve instead of in four beats as marked. A number of present day conductors are taking the March in the “Pathetique Symphony” of Tschaikowski in alla breve time with very marked success.
On the other hand there are types of compositions that need the greater energizing power of the four beats. Percy Grainger’s “Molly on the Shore”[2] is a good example of one of these. He requests the conductor to keep four equally accented beats hammering away throughout the whole piece.
[2] Copyright 1911, by G. Schirmer, Inc. N. Y.
In conducting fast moving tempos one-in-a-bar, the conductor will soon notice the individual bars grouping themselves together in phrases and periods, and it is most helpful to the musicians if some slight indication of the groupings be given in conducting. In fast one-in-a-bar movements four single measures often become one large measure of four beats, and if the beginning and termination of this measure group is indicated by a slightly larger beat, the musical composition becomes more intelligible to the player and listener.
Thus the beginning of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony
From the sixth measure on
might easily become:
This rearranged phrase grouping should in no way be misunderstood to mean that the tempo should be beaten in 4/4 Andante. Merely, the more compact grouping of faster notes in a slower tempo is often a mental help to both conductor and player in bringing out the proper musical inflection.
A glance at the following example will show how readily the opening theme of the “Eroica Symphony” falls into groups of four measures each.
On the other hand, the Scherzo of the same work is unevenly divided into phrases of four and two measures.
With the advent of Stravinsky and other moderns a new problem of time beating has arisen in connection with the attempt to free music entirely from the formal division of the bar line placed at regular intervals. Not that these composers dispense with the bar line completely, but they place it in such disconcertingly irregular places that the conductor’s task is doubly difficult even when he attempts to indicate it merely with a single down-beat.
The two following examples from Igor Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka”[3] illustrate this difficulty. The tempo is too fast to permit the use of regularly divided gestures, and yet it is very difficult to bring in the single beats with such metronomic precision that the musicians can play all of the individual eighth notes evenly and without hurrying.
[3] Copyright by Russischer Musikverlag, Berlin
EXAMPLE Nᵒ. 1
3 in a measure
EXAMPLE Nᵒ. 2
The author, in his conducting class at New York University has experimented with several methods, and has finally hit upon the following system of teaching the intricate baton technic involved in the conducting of works like Stravinsky’s “Petrouchka.”
The student is made to sit at the piano and play simple five finger figures with a single accent on the first note which is always played by the thumb.
Playing the eighth notes in a rather quick tempo each exercise is to be repeated until the feeling of the recurrence of the down-beat (which corresponds to the accented thumb stroke) becomes entirely automatic. Care must be taken never to vary the speed of the eighth notes and to accent only the first note.
Translated into terms of this exercise the two examples from “Petrouchka” would be as follows:
The speed of the eighth notes must never vary.