TABLE XXIII.
| Stress. | 1st Beat. | 2d Beat. | 3d Beat. | 4th Beat. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Initial, | 1.000 | 0.575 | 0.407 | 0.432 |
| Secondary, | 0.530 | 1.000 | 0.546 | 0.439 |
| Tertiary, | 0.470 | 0.407 | 1.000 | 0.453 |
| Final, | 0.492 | 0.445 | 0.467 | 1.000 |
The first and fourth forms follow similar courses, each marked by initial and final stress; but while this is true throughout in the fourth form, it results in the first form from the preponderance of the final interval in a single individual's record, and therefore cannot be considered typical. The second and third forms are preserved throughout the individual averages. The second form shows a maximum from which the curve descends continuously in either direction; in the third a division of the whole group into pairs is presented, a minor initial accent occurring symmetrically with the primary accent on the third element. This division of the third form into subgroups appears also in its duration aspect. Several inferences may be drawn from this group of relations. The first and second forms only are composed of singly accented groups; in the third and fourth forms there is presented a double accent and hence a composite grouping. This indicates that the position in which the accent falls is an important element in the coördination of the rhythmical unit. When the accent is initial, or occurs early in the group, a larger number of elements can be held together in a simple rhythmic structure than can be coördinated if the accent be final or come late in the series. In this sense the initial position of the accent is the natural one. The first two of these four-beat forms are dactylic in structure, the former with a postscript note added, the latter with a grace note prefixed. In the third and fourth forms the difficulty in coördinating the unaccented initial elements has resulted in the substitution of a dipodic division for the anapæstic structure of triple rhythms with final accent.
The presence of a tendency toward initial accentuation appears when the average intensities of the four reactions are considered irrespective of accentual position. Their proportional values are as follows: First, 1.000; second, 0.999; third, 1.005; fourth, 0.981. Underlying all changes in accentuation there thus appears a resolution of the rhythmic structure into units of two beats, which are primitively trochaic in form.
The influence exerted by the accented element on adjacent members of the group is manifested in these forms more clearly than heretofore when the values of the several elements are arranged in order of their proximity to that accent and irrespective of their positions in the group. Their proportional values are as follows:
TABLE XXIV.
| 2d Remove. | 1st Remove. | Accent. | 1st Remove. | 2d Remove. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0.442 | 0.526 | 1.000 | 0.514 | 0.442 |
This reinforcing influence is greater—according to the figures just given—in the case of the element preceding the accent than in that of the reaction which follows it. It may be, therefore, that the position of maximal stress in the preceding table is due to the close average relation in which the third position stands to the accented element. This proximity it of course shares with the second reaction of the group, but the underlying trochaic tendency depreciates the value of the second reaction while it exaggerates that of the third. This reception of the primitive accent the third element of the group indeed shares with the first, and one might on this basis alone have expected the maximal value to be reached in the initial position, were it not for the influence of the accentual stress on adjacent members of the group, which affects the value of the third reaction to an extent greater than the first, in the ratio 1.000:0.571.
The average intensity of the reactions in each of the four forms—all subjects and positions combined—is worthy of note.