Mimi Ezust wrote:

>I'd like to discuss the importance of rests in classical music.  Rests are
>especially helpful after a long discussion of repeats.
>
>Mimi Ezust <[log in to unmask]>
>
>[I think the musician deserves the artistic freedom to ignore rests in
>order to "get on with it" and keep the short-attention-span cadre from
>losing interest.  -Dave]

An excellent topic!!  To Dave: Stokowski had this philosophy, I believe
(pace Stumpf!).

I remember Otto-Werner Mueller conducting a rehearsal of Dvorak's 8th,
which has rests between the phrases at the opening.  He would say "...and
the rest, also in tune." Very mystical.  How can a rest be in tune? (I have
an idea about what he meant, though...)

The quality of a rest depends entirely on what comes before and after.
Handel has some of the most powerful rests in tonal music.  Example: in
the chorus "All We Like Sheep" in the final slow section, the chorus sings
"And the Lord hath laid on him....[rest]...the iniquity of us all." This is
the tension created by putting a rest between a dissonant chord and its
resolution.

There are also rests where a metrical beat continues in the listener's
mind, and others where any semblance of beat dissolves (most especially
a rest after a ritard).  Again these are psychologically different, of
course.

Chris Bonds