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Organized Time
OXFORD STUDIES IN MUSIC THEORY
Series Editor Steven Rings
Metric Manipulations in Haydn and Mozart: Chamber Music for Strings, 1787–1791, Danuta Mirka
Songs in Motion: Rhythm and Meter in the German Lied, Yonatan Malin
A Geometry of Music: Harmony and Counterpoint in the Extended Common Practice, Dmitri Tymoczko
In the Process of Becoming: Analytic and Philosophical Perspectives on Form in Early Nineteenth-Century
Music, Janet Schmalfeldt
Audacious Euphony: Chromaticism and the Triad’s Second Nature, Richard Cohn
Beating Time and Measuring Music in the Early Modern Era, Roger Mathew Grant
1
1
Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers
the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education
by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University
Press in the UK and certain other countries.
Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press
198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.
© Oxford University Press 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in
a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the
prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted
by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction
rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the
above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the
address above.
You must not circulate this work in any other form
and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Yust, Jason author.
Title: Organized time : rhythm, tonality, and form / Jason Yust.
Description: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018. | Series: Oxford
studies in music theory | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018006558| ISBN 9780190696481 (hardcover) |
ISBN 9780190696511 (oxford scholarly online)
Subjects: LCSH: Musical meter and rhythm. | Musical form. | Musical analysis.
Classification: LCC ML3850 .Y87 2018 | DDC 781.2/2—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018006558
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by Sheridan Books, Inc., United States of America
This volume is published with the generous support of the AMS 75 PAYS
Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment
for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Dedicated to my traveling companions, Kelly and Henry
Contents
• vii
5.3 Hypermetrical Hemiola in a Bach 11 Reforming Formal Analysis 266
Prelude 115
5.4 Transformations of Rhythmic 11.1 Tonal-Formal Disjunction and the
Structures 118 Phrase 266
11.2 Ritornello Form in the
6 Hypermeter 123 Eighteenth-Century Symphony 269
11.3 Form(s) and Recipes 282
6.1 Hypermeter in the Eye of the 11.4 Beyond the Frame 290
Beholder 123
6.2 Some Criteria for Hypermetrical 12 Tonal-Formal Disjunction 309
Analyses 126
6.3 Functions of Hypermetrical Shift in 12.1 High-Level Tonal-Formal Disjunction in
Haydn’s Symphonies 133 Sonata Form 309
6.4 Indefinite Hypermeter and Hypermetrical 12.2 Alternate Subordinate Keys 311
Reinterpretation 140 12.3 Disjunction in the Exposition:
Modulating Subordinate Themes 320
7 Hypermeter, Form, and Closure 145 12.4 Off-Tonic Recapitulations 327
viii • C ontents
Acknowledgments
AS IN any work of the scope of this one, the comments were transformational to the even-
debts are many and impossible to fully enu- tual form and content of the book. In addition,
merate. All of the many music theorists whose I thank Fred Lerdahl for his encouragement and
work is discussed in this book have challenged helpful comments on some of chapters, and
and enriched my understanding of tonal music David Kopp for his selfless professional support
with their work, and many of them have helped without which this project never would have
me along the way with many pivotal personal materialized.
communications and interactions at many All of the (many!) musical examples in the
question-and-
answer sessions at conferences book are set using Lilypond (lilypond.org).
and invited lectures. Despite my fear of leaving Although I have never directly interacted with
the list incomplete, Fred Lerdahl, Bill Caplin, the members of the Lilypond development com-
Janet Schmalfeldt, Lewis Lockwood, Alan munity, I am heavily indebted to their work
Gosman, Mary Farbood, Dmitri Tymoczko, on this open- source software, which, in my
and Richard Cohn come immediately to mind opinion, surpasses any commercial software
as those who have been generous in sharing in the attractiveness of its results. I also would
their knowledge and to whom the ideas of this not have been able to access all the many scores
book bear a direct debt in large and small ways. needed for the analyses and surveys that make
I must thank Steven Rings especially for his tre- up the bulk of this book without the vital re-
mendous support for the project and invaluable source of the International Music Score Library
comments on earlier drafts, as well as the anon- Project (imslp.org), which has made it possible
ymous reviewers engaged by Oxford University to view manuscripts (such as Johann Gottlieb
Press, whose work on the proposal chapters Graun’s F major Symphony, Av.49, analyzed
went beyond the call of duty and many of whose in chapter 11) that would have ten years ago
• ix
required prohibitive international travel to for the completion of this book than my own,
access. Behind every choice I have made of pieces and my parents, for whose constant love and
to discuss and analyze in the following pages support I am ever in gratitude. I hope that,
are tens of scores that I consulted but may not even if you never read it (and please don’t feel
ever mention specifically by name. obliged to), you take as much pride in seeing it
Finally, and most importantly, I thank my finished it as I do. To Henry in particular, I think
loved ones, Kelly and Henry, whose sacrifices, Example 14.7 is the prettiest. You can skip
though hidden, are no less directly responsible straight to that.
x • A cknowledgments
Organized Time
Introduction
What a hearer perceives in the tones—and rests—of a musical work is not simply time but shaped
and organized time.
—Victor Zuckerkandl1
1. 1956, 258–59.
• 1
EXAMPLE 0.1 The coastline from Third Beach to Toleak Point
down at our feet the whole way, our experience Beach to Toleak Point) and ending at one that
of it would lack the narrative structure that we lists every point along the walk in sequence. Like
crave, and which constantly urges us forward to the retelling of a football game on the nightly
reach each nearby point, step-by-step, in pursuit news, each path is a possible story we might tell
of the final destination. in recounting the trip, depending on how long or
The way that viewing the landscape structures short of a story we wanted to tell. A newscaster
our temporal experience of it depends essen- without much time might just show the pivotal
tially on the shape of the landscape, which touchdowns, but given a little more time, she
distinguishes the different locations along our might also include some of the turnovers that
walk according to prominence. A more prominent led to those touchdowns. A terse description of
point can be seen from more other locations, our hike might simply be “from Third Beach to
and, equivalently, when we are at that location Toleak Point.” A long-winded one could list each
there is also more to see. As Example 0.3 shows, point on the coastline in order. Between these
all of the views, taken together, are organized as extremes are paths that summarize the trip
a layered series of paths, starting from one that with some number of intermediary points. From
summarizes the whole trip (the view from Third Third Beach we hike to Strawberry Point before
2 • O r g a n ize d T i m e
EXAMPLE 0.3 (a) Sightlines between points on the beach, (b) The sightlines as a network
(a)
(b)
getting to Toleak Point. This is a summary of the In our walk on the beach, the space is an ac-
trip with three points. Between Third Beach and tual landscape. The plots of most stories also
Strawberry Point is an unnamed point. Adding involve temporal structures, where the land-
this, we have a summary of the trip involving scape may consist of possible states involving
four points. In order to include Scott’s Bluff, the characters of the story (Hermia loves
we must also include Taylor Point, since Taylor Lysander, but Lysander loves Helena who
Point obscures Scott’s Bluff from Third Beach. loves Demetrius . . .). This book is about mu-
Our walk on the beach is what I will call a sical landscapes, those created by relationships
temporal structure throughout this book. The between durations (rhythm), pitches and
elements of a temporal structure are: harmonies (tonality), and melodic motives and
ideas (form). While listening to music we trav-
(1) Some points in a space. erse these musical landscapes, and as we listen
(2) A definite temporal ordering of those we look ahead, just as we do while walking
points. the beach, seeing proximate and more distant
(3) Non-crossing connections between tem- goals, and some of those in between.
porally non-adjacent points. Musical goals are a bit like points on a beach
in that we often can see ahead to important
By “non-crossing,” I mean that if A connects to C destinations, but it can difficult to gauge their
and B is in between them, B cannot then connect distance when we cannot see all the events
to something before A or after C. The temporal in between. Our eyes assess distance mostly
ordering of the points, (2), is one kind of path, by comparing objects, but often a sweeping
a path that touches every point in the space. view of a landscape, particularly one on the
Shorter paths are possible using the connections open ocean, lacks a clear line from objects di-
in (3) to skip over certain points. These paths are rectly in front of us to those on the horizon.
hierarchically organized, from the simplest to From Third Beach, Toleak Point appears to be
the most complex, because there are no crossing just past Strawberry Point. But it’s hard to tell
connections. how far behind it really is, and we have no idea
There are many types of temporal struc- how deeply the coastline cuts back between
ture, because there are many kinds of space in them, or what obstacles there might be along
which the points of the structure might exist. the way. As Barack Obama said on the morning
Introduction • 3
EXAMPLE 0.4 Mozart, Piano Concerto no. 19, mm. 25–54
of November 9, 2016, “we zig and zag.” The climbed a false summit: where we thought the
situation is similar in the opening ritornello final tonic would be, there is instead a first-inver-
of Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 19, K. 459. sion tonic that leads into a long, unforeseen di-
Example 0.4 begins from the second theme. gression. The cadential dominant does not come
At this point, we have just had a half cadence back into view until we get to the IV chord in
and are looking ahead to a PAC in F major. We measure
‸ 37. From this predominant chord, with
can see directly in front of us that a second 4 firmly in the bass, a cadence once again appears
theme is underway, and it appears that as soon imminent. The dominant arrives in the form of
as the theme is complete, after eight measures or a cadential 46 in measure 41, but once there we
so, we should reach our goal. This goal looks like realize we have again been fooled. The coastline
it is just beyond the cadential dominant, which veers even further back as the bass continues up
arrives in the seventh measure of the theme by half step to C♯ to tonicize vi. The tonic that
(m. 31). Zen master Han Ong might then ask, had appeared so close at hand ten measures ago
“What is luck?” When we get to the dominant, is still miles away. Mozart is not done toying
we realize our eyes have deceived us and we have with us there either: another false promise is
4 • O r g a n ize d T i m e
denied in measure 49, and not until measure 54 melodies, rhythms, dynamics, or timbres, are
does a cadential dominant finally take us to our secondary.
long awaited goal, a PAC in F major.
Like the devious machinations of Puck in the
forest, which thwart the marriage of Lysander
DIMENSION
and Hermia that had just a moment before The concept of dimensionality is so ingrained
seemed inevitable and imminent, a good story in music theorist’s habits of thought that it
often builds content by throwing up seem- pervades our discourse often largely unno-
ingly insurmountable obstacles to a prom- ticed, only sporadically scrutinized. It is implicit
ised outcome. In a similar way, the unforeseen whenever we talk about musical parameters.
impediments that Mozart throws up in front Dimensionality is a mathematical as well as a
of his promised PAC are routine in tonal music. spatial metaphor. It is not a neutral concept. It
The reason for going on the voyage is not to get implies independence and separability. A point’s
to the destination. It is for the experiences and unique location is specified by its position in
the magnificent things we see along the journey. each dimension, and the possible positions in
The beauty of a destination is often enhanced by one dimension are not altered or restricted by
disappointments and detours that must be over- values in another dimension. We can project
come to get there. points onto one dimension, ignoring the others.
That music is, above all else, an inherently The metaphor of dimension also implies mallea-
temporal art is a commonplace. It is true that bility. So long as the number of dimensions re-
music can only be experienced in time. And, as main the same, we can rotate and shift our frame
a young John Cage observed, neither harmony of reference, redefining the parameters.
nor melody, nor even pitch, belong strictly To the physicist, sound is essentially two-
speaking to the essence of music, whereas dimensional. The physical parameters of sound
time does. However, without being too glib, are amplitude and time, the dimensions of a
one might point out that even visual art is not sound signal, patterns of varying sound pressure
observed in an instant but in time. The ceiling of over time. To the musician, the two most basic
the Sistine chapel certainly cannot be taken in parameters of music are pitch and rhythm, the
all at once, and even the quickest glance at the schematic dimensions of the musical score.
smallest painting surveys the image by scanning While pitch is certainly not the same thing as
its components in a definite order over a finite sound pressure level, we might nonetheless im-
period of time, a process that may happen so agine that the musician’s dimensions simply
quickly that the viewer is not even aware of it. represent a slight tilt of the physicist’s axes.
An essential skill of a great painter is the ability The apparent similarity between our musical
to put together a composition that leads the eye concepts and a physical description of sound
around in a definite way. The beauty of Cezanne’s tempts us into a false equivalence, the equation
still-lifes is paradoxically in how they move, with of music as a cognitive object and as a physical
their undulating, swirling lines, rather than object. This temptation is so basic to musical
in the commonplace objects they depict. Like thinking that the entire history of music theory
our walk on the beach, the process of looking may be viewed through its lens, so ever-present
temporalizes the space of the painting. What, and fundamental is the need to reconcile them.
then, is distinctive about music? While a painter (One need only cite the constant revisions of a
may strive to control the temporal aspect of her Jean-Phillipe Rameau or Hugo Riemann to their
art, a composer has little choice but to do so. own theories of harmony.)
Music whose temporal arrangement is indefi- But upon closer examination, the physical
nite (as in some semi-improvised contemporary and cognitive spaces of music are quite different.
works) is the rare exception, just as the rigidly The two parameters, pitch and time, certainly
predetermined temporalizing of the stations of do not give a complete description of musical
the cross or a graphic novel is the exception in space. Such a description would also necessarily
visual art. While a painting may succeed simply include factors of loudness and timbre. And
by communicating a vague quality of motion, the timbre itself is not itself a simple parameter, but
composer shapes a musical landscape to, above a placeholder for everything about a sound that
all else, carefully control the temporal experience is not its loudness, pitch, or duration. Perception
of traversing that landscape. The materials that thus transforms the space of music from that of
constitute the landscape, keys and harmonies, sound into one of a different dimensionality, a
Introduction • 5
EXAMPLE 0.5 Mozart, Symphony no. 36 (“Linz”), ii (Andante), mm. 25–32
fundamentally different space. What is constant then repeats the progression before finally re-
in this transformation is experienced time— solving to tonic (C major). There are clear struc-
that is, time on the scale of conscious human tural distinctions between harmonies in this
experience. situation: some are essential to the cadential
We are still dealing with a relatively low-level function of the phrase (IV, V, and I). The initial
description, though, when we speak of the per- V56/IV is dependent upon the cadential IV for
ceptual musical space. When we speak of musical its meaning. The V/ii is even more distant from
structure, the topic of this book, we are dealing the harmonic essentials of the phrase: it is de-
in yet another entirely different realm, music as pendent upon the following V/V, which is itself
a higher-cognitive object, or, to use Schoenberg’s dependent upon the following V56. Furthermore,
term, the musical idea. The perceptual space of this V56, as an unstable inverted dominant, is not
music is the medium out of which the musical a cadential chord at all, but needs to resolve to
idea is shaped. But, just as the space of physical the tonic before the cadence can proceed in the
sound does not transfer directly to music percep- second half of the measure.
tion, we should not assume that the musical idea The temporal arrangement of these harmonies
exists in the same kind of space as the objects of is essential to their structural meaning. Applied
perception. chords (like the V56/IV and V/ii) move to their
Musical structure is one of the most im- implied goals to realize their subsidiary struc-
portant concerns of music theorists studying tural role. Cadential predominant and domi-
tonal music. By definition, musical structure nant, which occur multiple times because of
is hierarchical and temporal. That is, like lin- the repeated deferrals of the final tonic, are
guistic grammar, structural relationships in also differentiated in function by their temporal
music exist at multiple levels and are organ- placement. The ii6–Cad46–V in the last beat of
ized in well- formed hierarchies, and those measure 31 fulfills the cadential function of the
relationships are dependent upon the temporal phrase because it is directly followed by the final
arrangement of musical events. For example, tonic. Other instances of predominant and dom-
consider the passage in Example 0.5, the final inant harmony, in measures 26–27 and measure
cadential phrase in the exposition of this slow 29, ultimately are of a lower structural order
movement from one of Mozart’s symphonies. because their resolutions are deflected.
The harmonies in measures 26 and 27 have im- In addition to the hierarchical syntax of har-
portant roles as predominant and dominant in monic progression, the phrase has a clear meter,
the cadential function of the phrase. Yet, the ca- which also imparts structure to the harmonies
dence is not completed as expected in measure and individual melody notes. This structure is
28. Instead, Mozart redirects the progression to also temporal, but it is in many places uncoor-
a remote harmony, V/ii, works his way back to dinated with the harmonic structure. While
the cadential harmony at the end of measure 29, meter is based on quantifiable duration whereas
6 • O r g a n ize d T i m e
harmony is not, both are inherently temporal. in particular the pitch envelopes, changes in
This latter sense of time as the basis of ordering loudness, and durations of syllables. It is es-
events and conceiving of them as motions is sential to the comprehensibility of utterances,
equally indigenous to all of the varieties of tem- and, like grammar, it displays hierarchical orga-
poral structure discussed here, those of rhythm, nization. Lerdahl (2001a) has shown underlying
tonality, and form. The physicist’s sense of similarities between the temporal structures
quantifiable time, as a dimension independent of linguistic prosody and musical rhythm and
of space in which distances can be measured, grouping. Prosodic structure relates to gram-
belongs exclusively to the domain of rhythm. matical structure, but is also fundamentally
The fact that rhythm and meter in Mozart’s independent of it. The prosodic and grammat-
theme structure time differently than the logic ical structures operate according to different
of the harmonic progression is most evident in principles and in different modalities, and do
measures 28–29. The V/ii chord is harmonically not always line up. Both are completely intui-
dependent upon the following V/V, but it occurs tive to speakers of a language and are processed
in a stronger metrical position on the first beat. simultaneously when listening to speech. The
The same is true in measure 29, where the un- analogy to the rhythmic and harmonic lan-
stable V56 occurs on the downbeat, but here the guage of Mozart’s musical utterance is easy to
chord of resolution, I, does not occur on a beat see: Mozart uses rhythmic structure as a kind of
at all, but on the weak eighth. In the melody, prosody, one that enhances the meaning of the
there are dissonant non-harmonic tones on both grammatical progression of harmonies, putting
beats of measure 28. Like the accented V56 in the special emphasis on important but more struc-
following measure, these accented dissonances turally remote chords. The rhythmic setting of
reverse the structural order of harmony and this conventional harmonic/voice-leading pro-
meter. This structural disjunction is essential to gression is like the dramatic reading of a poem,
fulfilling the phrase’s role in the aesthetic idea of creating tension by making prosodic shapes that
the piece. It is a dispute between musical struc- conflict with the harmonic grammar.
ture in two modalities, one tonal (harmony) and Music theorists tend to focus their efforts on
one rhythmic (meter). The same musical event one musical dimension or another, and partly
(melodic note or chord) may have a different for this reason it is tempting to assume that
status according to the two different structuring there is just a single temporal structure for a
principles. This momentary dispute intensifies piece, and that different musical factors compete
the sense of satisfaction upon reaching the ca- to define that structure. A theorist interested in
dential goal at the end of the phrase, where tonal structure might treat the rhythm as one
structures are brought back into alignment. potential factor—and a weak one at that—to
If it seems cognitively implausible that take into account when deciding the tonal struc-
a listener maintains multiple independent ture of the piece. This, I would argue, would rad-
structural descriptions of a musical passage, ically misconstrue a passage like the one above.
updating them online as the music proceeds, The tonal hierarchy of cadential harmonies is not
a linguistic analogy is perhaps instructive. It made in any way ambiguous by Mozart’s coun-
is well known that the grammatical structure tervailing metrical structure, nor is the meter
of sentences is inherently hierarchical, some- any less clear for the accented dissonances. On
thing Chomsky (1957, 1965) demonstrated the contrary, both structures are quite definite,
at the dawn of modern linguistics. Linguistic and thus produce a quite definite picture of con-
grammar is thus a temporal structure, a hierar- flict and striving.
chical structure that unfolds in time and whose For these reasons, in my pursuit of musical
objects are temporal, like the elements of music. structure in the following pages, I have found it
Suggestive comparisons have been often drawn necessary to operate on multiple fronts. At the
between linguistic and musical syntax. These, as level of the individual piece, a one-dimensional
Patel (2008, 2012) shows, can be misleading if analysis will often (to mix metaphors) come out
located at too literal a level but do reflect real flat. In the passage above, little of value could
deep similarities and suggest shared underlying be discovered by simply describing the meter.
neural processes. Less well-known is that an- Nor is the tonal structure, by itself, especially
other aspect of language, called prosody, also has remarkable. More often than not, the real mu-
a hierarchical structure. Prosody more directly sical action of a piece is somewhere between and
relates to the sound of a linguistic utterance, among dimensions. Yet, as Kofi Agawu says, “in
Introduction • 7
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
"It must be true, Robwood. Neither you nor Taat could have killed
him, and Taat's got the film to prove it."
Robwood unstrapped himself and pushed himself to the
companionway with some determination.
"Well, I'm not going to take over the ship and I'm not going to put you
in irons," he said spiritedly. "I couldn't handle the ship on a twenty-
four-hour basis for the next hundred and eighty-six days, and I'd
rather think Makki killed himself."
He paused at the top of the companionway.
"Don't forget," he said. "The Earth transit ought to be at midpoint in a
couple of hours."
Then he disappeared below.
Lefler took the magnetized pencil from the memorandum pad and
wrote a reminder: "E.T. midpoint. Should check 28:16:54."
Lefler leaned back gloomily in the control chair. Had he killed Makki?
It seemed the only way it could have happened, unless Makki had,
indeed, committed suicide. And he just didn't think Makki had.
The chronometer said 1839. Exactly twenty-four hours ago, he had
awakened from a nightmare and had come up to find Makki dead in
this same chair. It seemed a century.
He glanced idly back at the memorandum pad. 28:15:64. He'd have
to make an entry in the log in a little under two hours. How could he
check accurately when the time of entry into transit was estimated?
Twenty-four plus two. Twenty-six.
He sat bolt upright, straining at his straps. He snapped down the
communicator button.
"Robwood, come back up here!" he bellowed.
Unbuckling himself hastily, Lefler headed across the room toward the
heat-gun rack.
Taat was playing solitaire, waiting patiently for Robwood, when Lefler
and Robwood came down to the centerdeck together.
Lefler pointed a heat-gun at Taat.
"Go below and get the irons, Robwood," he said. "Taat, I'm sorry, but
I'm arresting you for the murder of Makki."
Taat raised an eyebrow and continued shuffling cards.
"I don't think you want to do anything like that, Robwood," he said
mildly. "Do you?"
Robwood hesitated and cast an anxious glance at him, but turned
and headed for the companionway to the storage deck.
"You've convinced him, have you, Lefler?" said Taat. "I didn't believe
you were guilty, but this makes me think you are."
Lefler said nothing, but held the gun steadily on Taat. Taat appeared
relaxed, but Lefler sensed a tension in him.
"What makes you think I did it, Lefler?" sparred Taat. The light glinted
from his spectacles as he turned his eyes from Lefler's face to watch
the shuffling cards.
"Two things," said Lefler. "If I'd killed him in a half-asleep daze, I
wouldn't have put gloves on him to make it look like suicide. Second,
your film started at 1500—a strangely precise hour—and Makki was
killed before then."
"The first point is good psychology," conceded Taat. "Since Robwood
couldn't have done it, I'll admit it looks like suicide. But your second
point doesn't hold water. Medical examination is accurate almost to a
fine point on the time of death so soon afterward."
"Medical evidence may not lie, but the examiner can, Taat," said
Lefler.
The clank of the chains resounded up the companionway. Robwood
was coming back. The spring in Taat uncoiled.
With a single sweep, he hurled the deck of cards at Lefler's head and
surged upward. Lefler lost his balance and fell sidewise as he dodged
the improvised missile. But even as he lost his equilibrium, he
pressed the trigger of the heat-gun and brought it downward in a fast
chop.
The straps that held Taat to his chair were his doom. The searing
beam swept across them, freeing him but at the same time blasting a
six-inch swath across his stomach. Taat screamed hoarsely as the
beam swung past him and burned along the floor of the centerdeck.
Lefler regained his balance and floated to Taat's side, pushing aside
the cards that drifted in a swirling cloud about the room. Robwood
appeared from below, the manacles in his hands.
"Your third point wins the day," gasped Taat, his hands writhing over
his mangled abdomen. "I won't last long, but if you'll get me to the
control room I'll radio a confession that'll clear you and Robwood
completely."
"Help me get him to a bunk, Robwood," ordered Lefler, grasping Taat
by the arms. "Taat, you'll have to tell us what to do for you."
"No use," groaned Taat. He managed a ghastly smile. "I unbuckled
your bunk straps to throw you off course, Lefler, but I don't want you
to think I was trying to blame it on you. I was trying to make it look like
Makki killed himself."
"But why, Taat?"
"It wasn't just that Makki cheated me," replied Taat with some
difficulty. "I'd saved several thousand dollars to build a little clinic in
Mars City—something I've dreamed of all my life. That's why I let
Makki talk me into investing—I needed just a little more. But the
business was almost worthless. He stole most of my money. I was
arguing with him about it in the control room, when he drew the gun
and threatened to kill me. He was strapped down. I wrestled with him,
and he was killed in the scuffle. That's it."
They maneuvered Taat into a bunk and tried to arrange the straps to
avoid the gaping wound in his stomach. Taat raised his hand weakly
and removed his spectacles. He blinked up at Lefler.
"I didn't think you knew enough about medicine to tell how long a man
had been dead," he said.
"I don't," said Lefler. "But you set the time of Makki's death at 1830
hours. You said you could tell.
"The Earth transit started at 1612, Taat. I've known Makki all my life. If
he'd been alive then, he'd have recorded it in the log. And he didn't.
"I just figured the only man who had any reason to lie deliberately
about the time of Makki's death was the man who shot him."
Lefler looked at the centerdeck chronometer. It was 2025.
"Do what you can for him, then bring him up to the radio, Robwood,"
he said. "I've got to get up to the control room and record the
midpoint of the Earth transit."
*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARTH
TRANSIT ***
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