WRITING THE SONG - Part 6

No matter what the time signature may be, the first beat of the measure is always accented. This beat is called the "down beat" and is indicated by the orchestra leader lowering his baton. The unaccented beat is indicated by a raised baton. The orchestra leader thus beats out both the time and the fundamental rhythm of a piece.

might be likened to the following poetic phrase

In foxtrot tempo, the first beat of the measure receives the strongest accent while the third beat is accented but not quite as heavily. Both the second and fourth beats are unaccented. Thus a measure of four quarter notes in 4/4 time.

In waltz time (3/4 time) the down beat is usually followed by two unaccented beats. In some instances, however, the accent on the first beat is very light, making the stress seem almost equal on all three beats of the measure. In no instance do we have more than one accented or down beat in waltz time. A waltz measure might be thus compared to a poetic measure:

So far, we have discussed only the fundamental rhythm; that is, the rhythm indicated in the signature of the song. A secondary rhythm, however, is achieved by varying the value of the notes within the measure. Although this will be discussed in greater detail later in this book, it might be well to bring out the fact that normally unaccented syllables can be given a false accent by some such device as the following:

In this instance, the second (unaccented) beat of each measure seems to receive an accent because the note falling on the second beat is held for two beats. A normally stressed beat, on the other hand, may seem to receive less accent if, for example, an eighth rest followed by an eighth note is used instead of the quarter note.