People love things that come in threes, whether wise men or musketeers or stooges. But you'll also find groups of three showing up in more hifalutin' places: Hence, a symphony has three movements, a play has three acts, and a novel has its proverbial beginning, middle and end.
The peculiar power of three-part compositions crops up in architecture as well. Take, for instance, the division of the classical column into base, shaft and capital -- a sort of beginning, middle and end in three dimensions. more...
