The Short

16 ACCENTUATION IN THEORY
The parts of the bar are divided into accented and unaccented. By the former are to be understood those parts
upon which our feelings naturally bestow a certain degree of weight or stress. The latter pass by our ear, as it were,
and, in comparison with the former, appear light and unimportant. 37
However, during the Galant and Classical periods there seems to have been a significant distinction between melody
and accompaniment with respect to metrical accentuation. It arises from the characteristic textures of this music, in
which accompanying parts and bass were so often given regular patterns of repeated notes, the so-called Trommelbass.
As with so much else in the study of performing practice, it is important to distinguish here between the conventions
that applied primarily to solo performance and those that were germane to ensemble or accompaniment. The metrical
structure of the music, seen from the point of view of the composer, is intimately connected with such things as phrase
structure, the rate of harmonic change, and the fullness or lightness of texture at any given point. To a large extent
these factors will, as J. F. Schubert remarked, cause the strong beats of the metre to ‘accent themselves through their
inner strength’; and this probably lay behind Hummel's comments. But many writers pointed out that when
instrumentalists played repeated patterns of accompaniment figures, they had to ensure that the accents were placed
strictly in accordance with the music's metre unless this were expressly countermanded by the composer's markings.
Thus Johann Joachim Quantz advised the cellist that ‘If in a Presto that must be played in a very lively fashion several
quavers or other short notes appear upon the same pitch, the first in each measure may be stressed by pressure on the
bow’. 38 And Leopold Mozart gave a similar example of an‘ordinary accompaniment to an aria or concert piece, where
for the most part only quavers or semiquavers appear‘ (Ex. 1.5.) 39 In these types of accompaniment it would clearly be
out of place either to make absolutely no kind of metrical accent or to place the stronger accents on metrically weaker
beats, except in special circumstances, or where the composer has indicated something particular. It may well be the
case that rhythmic or expressive accent
Ex. 1.5. L. Mozart, Versuch, XII, §9
37
Ausführliche theoretisch-practische Anweisung zum Piano-Forte-Spiel (Vienna, 1828), trans. as A Complete Theoretical and Practical Course of Instructions, on the Art of Playing the Piano Forte
(London, 1828), i. 59.
38
Versuch einer Anweisung die Flöte traversiere zu spielen (Berlin, 1752), trans. Edward R. Reilly as On Playing the Flute (London, 1966), XVII, 4, §9.
39 Versuch, XII, §9.