Hi Darcy, I may have overstated my insistence on 3/2 vs 6/4. My own music changes meter often, suppresses downbeats (or emphasizes offbeats), sometimes floats freely above the meter for long stretches. Your wisdom — along with your experience — is evident, clear, and also well known.
Even still, I embrace tradition in notational practice wherever I can, seeing it as the immediately-understood default choice of experienced musicians. This may relate to the fact that the first time I was taken to task for ignoring the 3/2 vs 6/4 distinction was early in my career, and was from a (now) hugely successful and well-known composer and conductor who specializes in classical contemporary music of the most demanding and adventurous type. Of course, everything ultimately depends on context, clarity of intent, ease of reading, knowledge of the band and their expectations — all of this takes precedence. I would just say that it is always best to know that one is ignoring conventions, and to have good reasons for doing so. And, so, as you say, “the distinction is useful until it’s not." By the way, I am a huge fan. I was playing your music for a DMA composition student the other day. He was hugely impressed. David Froom > On 9 Dec 2016, at 10:41 PM, DJA wrote: > > The distinction is useful until it?s not. > > If I have a fast piece in 2/2, conducted in 2, and then I need a bar that?s > elongated by a beat, I?m going to write a bar of 3/2, and conduct that bar in > 3. > > If I have a piece in 5/4, conducted in 5, and then I need a bar that?s > elongated by a beat, I?m going to write a bar of 6/4, and conduct that bar in > 6. > > If I have a piece in 4/4, conducted in 4, and then I need a bar that?s > elongated by two beats, I?m also going to write a bar of 6/4, and conduct > that bar in 6. > > Traditional worries about which parts of the bar are stressed don?t really > apply to my music, and that?s true of much modern music. > > That bar of 6 might contain people playing all kinds of syncopations and > over-the-barline rhythms and cross-rhythms. There might not even *be* an > attack on beat 4 to emphasize. Insisting that 3/2 can only be 2+2+2 and 6/4 > can *only* be 2+2+2 is a convention that is not useful my music, or in the > music of many (if not most) contemporary composers. > > Cheers, > > ? DJA > ----- > http://secretsocietymusic.org _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu https://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale To unsubscribe from finale send a message to: finale-unsubscr...@shsu.edu
