> Hi Owain, > > The point I was trying to make is that unlike standard time > signatures, a tuplet-base time signature like 5/6 can't stand on its > own -- it only makes sense relative to a non-tuplet-base time sig. > Even if the first measure is 5/6, your mental countoff still > has to be > quarter notes, so you know where the "sixth note" (quarter-note > triplet) is. > > I'm aware Ferneyhough does the sort of thing you describe, > but I'm not > entirely convinced it's playable by humans, nor feelable by a > listener. Third-notes and sixth-notes set against a regular 4/4 grid > are one thing -- tenth-notes (i.e., incomplete eighth-note > quintuplets) are quite another. >
I don't see why it's necessary for the mental countoff to be in x/4 or x/8. (He does generally make quavers his standard pulse rather than crotchets.) In the example I gave, the indication is that the pulse of the 2/10 bar is at quaver=68 indication. On arriving at the change to 3/8, the pulse slows by one-fifth. It's not necessary to be thinking about any incompleteness of tuplets, or about placing every bar against a continuous mental x/8 pulse. With a little practice these changes feel completely natural - less work than plenty of my pupils have needed when encountering 6/8 for the first time. Now there's a thought...why complicate things with these pesky dotted crotchet pulses when you could just use triplets instead? ;) > Performances of Ferneyhough (at least the ones I've heard) > tend to be > approximate at best. I don't fault the performers -- I very > much doubt > the composer could clap his own rhythms with any accuracy either. > > This is pretty much the opposite of Michael Gordon's music, > where the > whole point is to make you feel the clash of "irrational" rhythms > grinding against a regular pulse. > > Cheers, > > - Darcy > I must make the point is that it's a mistake to assume that Ferneyhough has expectations of robotic accuracy - he has stated clearly that this is not the case. (The first tempo of Etudes Transcendentales is actually not 68 as I said, but 'ca.68'.) That's not to say there aren't bad performances, of course. He certainly does see the pulse to be an important part of the music, again he has said as much and I have heard performers describe the emphasis he has placed on this when working with them. The scores bear this out: his use of tuplets largely involves rhythms within a quaver beat, or encompassing a whole bar with e.g. 7:6, causing a further fluidity in the pulse, but not destroying it. Sure, he may not be able to clap the rhythms, but it's not his job to do so. I doubt he can sing much of the vocal parts, either. If he can hear the rhythms in his head, and notate them in a way which meaningfully conveys them to a performer, then that's enough. I can work through the violin parts and learn to hear/tap the rhythms, it's just getting the fingers to the notes that stops me from playing them...no different than with plenty of core repertoire pieces! Owain _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
