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Date: | Tue, 28 Mar 2000 00:14:00 -0600 |
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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
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