Well placed Neal.
But I know my eyes won't let me follow.
I just can't see it in a passage that mixes time sig.
So
4/4 5/4 3/4 6/4 3/2 7/4
Often times I find my 5/4 and 7/4 alternating like 3+2/5 then 2+3/5
Throwing a 3/2 into the mix (to me) indicates a sort of half time feel
(that is ) three half note beats -- when what I may really want is a
passage of three 2/4 measures.
I suppose one should break it up but there is a clutter issue.
What about 4+2/6 then 2+4/6
three bars of 4? Doesn't seem right to me.
Sometimes it seems to me that I should notate one way so as to show the
performer exactly what I want and then once the piece has it's
performance another simplier way.
Anyone ever read Paul Creston's Rational Metric Notation?
He advocates replaces 6/8 with 6/12.
Jerry
On 30-Jun-05, at 2:09 AM, Neal Schermerhorn wrote:
I promised I would not respond. Oh well...
The difference between 6/4 and 3/2 is precisely the same difference
between
6/8 and 3/4.
You can argue all night on what the difference is between using a
quarter
note and a half note as the beat results in, but what it all comes
down to
is that there are simple meters (3/4) and there are complex meters
(6/8).
Simple meters are routinely counted with the note value that matches
the
bottom number as the beat. So, 2/2 means there are 2 beats and the
half note
gets one beat. 3/4 means there are 3 beats and the quarter note gets
one
beat.
Compound meters are sometimes counted the same as simple (6/8 can be
six
beats where the eighth note is one beat), but are very often counted in
threes, where the top number is three times the number of beats
(6/3=2) and
the bottom number represents a third of the beat (three eighth notes =
dotted quarter).
6/4 is properly used for music felt in 2 groups of 3. 3/2 is properly
used
for music felt in 3 groups of 2.
Basically, when the fraction represented by the time signature is
reducable
AND the top number is divisible by 3, you have a compound meter. (3/8
could
be considered compound, though, as could 3/4, if they are felt in
one.) But
in cases where the fraction is not reducible, it's unlikely it's meant
to be
felt with a subdivision of 3 to the regular beat. (Again, 3/4, 3/8 are
exceptions.)
NOW - 3/2 could be felt in "one" but who would do such a thing? 3/4 or
3/8
would more meaningfully carry the sense of "in one" to the musician.
3/2 is
almost always felt in 3.
Now, we do see hemiola incorporated into 3/2 so there are some 3/2 bars
which might feel as if they are in 2. If you want to choose between
3/2 and
6/4 and your music is at least some of the time in 3, use 3/2. But if
it's
squarely in 2 groups of 3 throughout, 6/4 is correct.
Apologies, but this is all so obvious to me.
Neal Schermerhorn
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Gerald Berg
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