On 30 Jun 2005 at 2:09, Neal Schermerhorn wrote: > 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.
Well, depends on what you're talking about. If you're talking about choosing a meter for a composition of your own, you'd make the choice depending on what the musicians you're composing for would expect. If I'm writing for viol consort, I'd choose 3/2, since viols are more accustomed to reading small subdivisions in meters with large beat values. If I were writing for string quartet, I'd choose 3/4. If you're editing older music, you'd be better off leaving the original note values alone, which means you're likely to end up with 3/2 in many repertories. And, yes, 3/2 can be *very* fast. > 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. . . . No, no, no. That is *not* a hemiola. A hemiola doubles the beat value. In 3/4, the hemiola is at the half note. A hemiola always takes TWO MEAUSURES of the original meter to unfold. > . . . 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. This has nothing to do with hemiola -- it's just a conventional subdivision shift within triple meters. It is very ancient, and culturally very widespread. It is *not* hemiola. -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
