On 30 Jun 2005 at 10:46, Christopher Smith wrote: > On Jun 30, 2005, at 8:48 AM, Gerald Berg wrote: > > > > Anyone ever read Paul Creston's Rational Metric Notation? > > > > He advocates replaces 6/8 with 6/12. > > I read another book of his on rhythm (I forget the name now) and liked > what he had to say on the subject. There is so little written on the > theory of rhythm, compared to harmony and form, that one might start > to think that harmony is the most important aspect of music! > > I don't know the passage you mentioned, but he might be suggesting > 6/12 instead of 6/8 for passages where the pulse changes from a > quarter to a dotted quarter in the SAME tempo (formerly "l'istesso > tempo"), or instead of writing eighth-note triplets. This would agree > with Ferneyhough's (and others') use of so-called "irrational" metres. > > For me, there would have to be some greater clarity achieved than in > the example I gave. Triplets, or a simple Q=Q. over the barline, would > be perfectly clear for that example. No use complicating things for > such little gain. On the other hand, I STILL like 2 over Q. for 6/8, > as it clarifies things perfectly.
I'm puzzled by why one would want to "rationalize" 6/8 to 6/12, because it breaks the entire older system on which the numbers are based (there is no such thing as a "12th-note"), while not really adding anything in the way of clarity. It's as though the idea is to use fractions, which have always had nothing whatsoever to do with time signatures. As to clarifying subdivision shifts, 6 eighths followed by 3 quarters could not be more clear, don't you think? And in the repertory I play all the time, we have no difficulty reading at sight and finding the metrical frameworks within the lines, based on the rhythmic values that are there, and the motivic shape. Here's a score that I played from with performance marks in it, including marks to show metrical grouping within the larger meter (which is 4/2): http://www.dfenton.com/Collegium/SideBySideViols/Coperario.PDF And here's a recording of a performance of that piece (all on one line): http://www.dfenton.com/Collegium/SideBySideViols/05 Coperario-Fantasy à3.mp3 (if you listen carefully, you'll note that our ability to realize what is marked in the score is limited, especially on the part of the tenor viol player, who had only been playing tenor for 4 months, and viol for 2 years at the time we performed; the top part is most successfully realized; also, modern string players shouldn't freak out about what looks like backwards bowings -- because of the underhand grip of the viol, the strong bow is the push (up bow), and the pull (down) is the weak bow) The second page particularly shows the degree of polymetric interplay between the parts. The 4/2 meter really has nothing much to do with the actual musical content -- it's like the ether that carries a much more complex musical surface, where there's a constant contrast between and shifting of the 3 parts with different downbeats and metrical groupings. -- 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
