On 7 Jul 2005 at 12:37, John Howell wrote: > Seems to me that talking about "beats" compounds (sorry!) the > confusion. Yes, 12/8 can indicate 4 "beats" per bar; that's sort of > the default interpretation. At a slower tempo, however, it can > indicate 12 "beats" per bar. I've conducted Bach slow movements that > required exactly that. And at a faster tempo it can indicate 2 > "beats" per bar. Young musicians have to learn that ALL time > signatures are variable. They may first encounter 6/8 in the context > of marches, 2 beats to a bar. And they will be confused the first > time they run into 6/8 with six beats to a bar, but that's just one > more variable in our notation that they have to master.
Well, I disagree entirely with your point here. You're writing from the standpoint of a conductor -- yes, a conductor has to convey subdivisions in slow tempos, but that does not mean the beat has changed. A slow 12/8 may need 8th-note subdivisions beaten, but that is *not* the same thing as 12 beats to the bar. I also don't think there's such a thing as 6/8 in six, even at slow tempos -- not, at least, as a standard interpretation (who knows what composers have imposed on poor musicians by trying to use conventional notation to convey something at odds with its usual meaning). I think the use of a note as denominator would eliminate all these problems. 6/8 would become 2/Q., and would also allow one to notate 6/E if one actually wanted it. That makes far more sense than the absolutely idiotic 12/12. -- 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
