Example of four in a bar, very slow:
The arm should take no part in the little supplementary gesture indicating the subdivision of the bar; merely the wrist causing the stick to move.
This division of the different times is intended to prevent the rhythmical divergences which might easily take place among the performers during the interval which separates one beat from the other. The conductor not indicating anything during this period (rendered somewhat considerable by the extreme slowness of the movement), the players are then entirely left to themselves, without conductor; and as the rhythmical feeling is not the same with all, it follows that some hurry, while others slacken, and unity is soon destroyed. The only exception possible to this rule is that of a first-rate orchestra, composed of performers who are well acquainted with each other, are accustomed to play together, and know almost by heart the work they are executing. Even then, the inattention of a single player may occasion an accident. Why incur its possibility? I know that certain artists feel their self-love hurt when thus kept in leading-strings (like children, they say); but with a conductor who has no other view than the excellence of the ultimate result, this consideration can have no weight. Even in a quartet, it is seldom that the individual feeling of the players can be left entirely free to follow its own dictates. In a symphony, that of the conductor must rule. The art of comprehending it, and fulfilling it with unanimity, constitutes the perfection of execution; and individual wills—which can never agree one with another—should never be permitted to manifest themselves.
This being fully understood, it will be seen that subdivision is still more essential for very slow times; as those of 6⁄4, 6⁄8, 9⁄8, 12⁄8 etc.
But these times—where the triple rhythm plays so important a part—may be divided in various ways.
If the movement is brisk or moderate, it is rarely well to indicate other than the simple beats of these times, according to the procedure adopted for the analogous simple times.
The times of 6⁄8 allegretto, and of 6⁄4 allegro, therefore, are to be beaten like those of two in a bar:—
= or 2 = or 2⁄4; the time, 9⁄8 allegro, should be beaten like that of three in a bar—3⁄4 moderato, or like that of 3⁄8 andantino; and the time, 12⁄8 moderato or allegro, like the time, simple four in a bar. But if the movement be adagio, largo assai, or andante maestoso, either all the quavers, or a crotchet followed by a quaver, should be beaten, according to the form of the melody, or the predominant design.