The times,--five and seven in a bar,--would be more comprehensible for the performers, if instead of indicating them by a particular series of gestures, they were treated as though the one was composed of three and two in a bar, and the other composed of four and three.
Then, these times would be beaten thus:--
These different times, in order to be divided in this way, are assumed to belong to movements of moderate measure. The advice would not hold good if their measure were either very quick or very slow.
The time, two in a bar, I have already signified, cannot be beaten otherwise than as we have before seen--whatever its degree of rapidity. But if, as an exception, it should be very slow, the conductor ought to subdivide it.
A very rapid four in a bar, on the contrary, should be beaten two in a bar; the four accustomed gestures of a moderate movement becoming then so hurried as to present nothing decided to the eye, and serving only to confuse the performer instead of giving him confidence. Moreover,--and this is of much more consequence,--the conductor, by uselessly making these four gestures in a quick movement, renders the pace of the rhythm awkward, and loses the freedom of gesture which a simple division of the time into its half would leave him.
Generally speaking, composers are wrong to write in such a case the indication of the time as four in a bar. When the movement is very brisk, they should never write any other than the sign [Symbol: two in a bar], and not that of [Symbol: four in a bar], which might lead the conductor into error.
It is exactly the same for the time, three in a bar, fast 3/4 or 3/8. Then the conductor must omit the gesture of the second beat, and, by remaining the period of a beat longer on the first, only raise the stick at the third.
It would be absurd to attempt to beat the three in a bar of one of Beethoven's scherzos.
In slow movements the rule for these two times is like that for two in a bar. If the movement is very slow, each time must be divided; and consequently eight gestures must be made for the time, four in a bar, and six for the time, three in a bar, repeating (and shortening) each of the principal gestures we have before instanced.