Caesura

The caesura (Latin caesura, cut ') is generally a ( mental ) incision.

The turning point in the rhetoric and poetics

Turning points are, for example, in the Roman, Greek and Germanic poetry incisions that are made after certain quantities in the verse. This incision can, in contrast to dihairesis, which is often used in the bucolic, are also within the Versfußes, whereby the metrical foot or cycle is divided into two words.

A turning point marks a minimum pause while reading, such as the hexameter. A hexameter is composed of dactyls and spondees. A dactyl is a long and two short units. A spondee consists of two long units. The placement of caesuras a long unit is counted as one and two short units also as one. The following turning points:

• Trithemimeres ( caesura semiternaria, after three Halbverseinheiten )
• Penthemimeres ( caesura semiquinaria, after five Halbverseinheiten )
• κατὰ τρίτον τροχαῖον (kata Triton trochaíon; trochaica caesura after the third trochee, ie between the two shortening the third Verseinheit )
• Hephthemimeres ( caesura semiseptinaria, after seven Halbverseinheiten; occurs mostly in hexameter together with a Trithemimeres as a side break on )

The caesura in prosody is also called the incision, especially when pentameter. In German metric is called the caesura after an uplift male, after a reduction or female sounding. The turning point in the verse divides the line of verse into parts ( Kola ). The term caesura (or dihairesis ) also exists in the literature, especially poetry, architecture and music. In the latter, there is a short vertical line in the notation, the singers or players of wind instruments indicating where to be breathed. In this sense, this notation is also used with other instruments to indicate a mental break in pieces.

In the various art forms, the caesura various effects of relaxed pause until the tense silence / pause, an incision rich. As such, it is originally assigned to the rhetoric.

As an example, an Alexandrian of it all is vanity (1637 ) by Andreas Gryphius (excerpt):

The turning point in the history of research

The turning point in the historical research describes a distinctive notch, so the boundary between two time periods. Examples of such turning points in modern society about the October Revolution of 1917 or the end of the First World War in 1918, the end of the Second World War in 1945, the changes of 1989 in East Germany, which led to German reunification. Often the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001 are referred to as epoch cut or caesura, which from a historical perspective, however, can not yet be determined clearly enough. An example in ancient times was about the dictatorship of Sulla from 82 BC Other examples of turning points in modern times are the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1648, the French Revolution of 1789 or the Vienna Congress in 1815, which led to the reorganization of Europe after the Napoleonic era.

The break in the music

In music, the caesura is a notch or point of rest in the tone sequence, which is represented by the notation character " caesura " (Unicode character U 1 D113 ). The watershed is mainly found in vocal literature and serves primarily as a respite. However, it can also be used as agogisches stylistic device. In general, the previous note for air shall be reduced accordingly. In this case, the tempo of the music is not or hardly influenced. The turning point is not to be confused with the Asteriscus (see psalmody ).