At 12:29 AM -0500 1/16/11, Christopher Smith wrote:
On Sat Jan 15, at SaturdayJan 15 11:46 PM, John Howell wrote:
Thanks, Ray. Yes, what I remembered from "Mars" is that he
consistently used dotted half tied to half for full-bar notes.
(And throughout divided the same way in the 5/4 sections.) And
dotted whole tied to whole in the 5/2 sections.
Of course the rhythm is divided that way consistently throughout,
give or take some layering, but I remembered, correctly, that it
does make it VERY easy to read.
The second theme is five dotted-quarter/eighth patterns that divide
two measures of 5/4 into 2+2+2+2+2, which frankly, makes it a little
hard to conduct musically. But I agree that it is notated in the
best way possible under the circumstances.
Yes, that's the most obvious layering. But since it's superimposed
over the consistent rhythmic ostinato, it isn't really a question of
"conducting" that countermelody. When we did it our conductor simply
kept the beat steady (very necessary to ensure getting the entrances
right), and the countermelody figure really plays itself.
John
--
John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music
Virginia Tech Department of Music
College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences
Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A. 24061-0240
Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034
(mailto:john.how...@vt.edu)
http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html
"We never play anything the same way once." Shelly Manne's definition
of jazz musicians.
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