Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Notes to the Reader on Sources and Terminology
- Introduction The Pledge of Allegiance
- Part One Establishing an Historical Perspective
- Part Two The Art of Interpreting Rests
- Part Three Case Studies in Musical Punctuation
- Afterword
- Appendix A Translation of Marpurg's Lessons on Musical Punctuation, from His Kritische Briefe über die Tonkunst, vol. 2
- Appendix B Chronological Chart of Punctuation References
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
Chapter Four - Written and Unwritten Rests
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 March 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- Notes to the Reader on Sources and Terminology
- Introduction The Pledge of Allegiance
- Part One Establishing an Historical Perspective
- Part Two The Art of Interpreting Rests
- Part Three Case Studies in Musical Punctuation
- Afterword
- Appendix A Translation of Marpurg's Lessons on Musical Punctuation, from His Kritische Briefe über die Tonkunst, vol. 2
- Appendix B Chronological Chart of Punctuation References
- Notes
- Selected Bibliography
- Index
- Eastman Studies in Music
Summary
Concerning the Stops, Points, or Pauses Observe,
That you must endeavor perfectly to know each of them, by their Figures or Shapes, by their several Names, but especially the time, you are to Stop at each of them.
—Anonymous, 1680Stop, Breathe, Pause, Suspend, Take Time, Rest, Divide, Separate…. Such injunctions dominate eighteenth-century (and nineteenth-century) discourse on the Art of Punctuation. As we established in Part 1, the manner in which phrases are formed and differentiated (our “complex and lively picture of pointing theory”) encompasses a broad array of subjects: syllabic feet, metrical stress, accent, emphasis, dynamics, inflection, as well as considerations of gesture, affect, compositional type and style, etc. But a quick glance through the chart in appendix B reveals punctuation's defining role as the delineation of phrase structure through pauses, or musically speaking, rests. The three chapters here in Part 2 explore the interwoven parameters by which we can begin to grasp this intricate Art of Interpreting Rests: the methods of notating the pauses of punctuation, differentiating these symbols from those of articulation, and always taking into consideration the prevailing character or affect of the expression at hand.
As performers, students, or teachers, we have all very likely said, or had said to us, something along the lines of “be faithful to the score,” or “play only what is written.” We observed, with regard to the punctuation of the Pledge of Allegiance, that the South Bay Toastmasters similarly advised their members to “speak it as it is written.” But as we have also learned, such a request is not as straightforward as it might seem. We must remind ourselves that punctuation is an essentially visual phenomenon with a history inseparable from that of written language. Writing served initially as a visual record of the spoken word, but gradually grew from the sixth century onwards to convey information directly to the mind's eye (silent reading for example), bypassing any oral (or aural) expression. As the practice of disseminating information solely through a written medium developed, notational tools like punctuation, which could promote comprehension, became increasingly important.
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- Information
- The Art of Musical Phrasing in the Eighteenth CenturyPunctuating the Classical 'Period', pp. 97 - 120Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008