[Brad Beyenhof:]
>On Wednesday, June 11, 2003 11:17 PM, Michael Edwards wrote:
>
>>I learned that the "beat" was the primary unit of rhythm, and
>>that you could term subdivisions of that "pulses".
>> Am I wrong on this? Or can you have it either way?
>
>I would've thought the same (and I originally had written it
>that way in my post), but Read calls the large units "pulses"
>and the small units "beats." I personally don't agree, but as
>a scholar I just wanted to stay consistent with previous
>research/publication.
It still sounds wrong: I mean, we say phrases like "on the third beat" -
not "on the third pulse".
I'm not sure what we call the subdivisions, and a generic term for them
doesn't seem to be heard much. Thinking about it, I would probably just say
"the third semiquaver", "the second quaver", or whatever was appropriate.
I'm pretty sure where I read about the beat vs. pulse thing was when I was
a boy, in Percy Scholes' "Junior Oxford Companion to Music". It is a simple
reference work for children, but I would have thought Percy Scholes was a
reputable reference in anything he wrote.
It is a British work: could it be one of those things where U.K. and U.S.
usage differ? - that is, what the British (and Australians) call a beat, the
Americans call a pulse, and vice-versa?
If so, it could potentially be a very confusing difference of usage. At
least the "crotchet vs. quarter" thing is not ambiguous.
[Randolph Peters:]
>A point of clarification:
>In Gardner Read's "Music Notation" (2nd ed. 1969) the author does not
>seem to refer to pulses but he does call the larger units "beats."
>The subdivisions are named the actual note length (eighth note or
>whatever)....
While it seems to agree with what I would say, it does confuse things
further. Perhaps Randolph Peters is referring to a different work by Gardner
Read from Brad - but that would have Read contradicting his own usage.
But even if Brad were mistaken in quoting Read's usage (and I don't know if
he is, because I don't have any works by Read to check), it doesn't resolve it
completely - because I have heard this usage elsewhere (pulse being larger than
beat), although not often.
Regards,
Michael Edwards.
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