A study of rhythm in primitve music / by Charles S. Myers.

  • Charles Samuel Myers
Date:
[1905?]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A study of rhythm in primitve music / by Charles S. Myers. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    12/16 (page 406)
    tones, so those of primitive rhythm have developed from a basis of simple relation between the duration of successively occurring periods. The development of harmony and of rhythm alike invoke the psychological acts of analysis, synthesis and fusion. While the later advances in choral singing in Europe required a more regular and a more frequent accent than was necessary in earlier stages of European culture, primitive music, unhampered by the demands of harmony and polyphony, has evolved complications of succession rather than of simultaneity,—complications of measure rather than of tone. In the early mediaeval music and among the existing folk-songs of many parts of Europe, curious irregularities or even defects of rhythm are met with. Within relatively modern times our composers have successfully obtained novel and striking effects by departures from the uniform and more conventional rhythms. Whether they will ever adopt such complex rhythms as are in use among certain primitive peoples, must depend on the gradual education of their audience and on the limiting value of the strain of attention which is compatible with aesthetic pleasure.