Dear Peter, For those who are unfamiliar with this lute song, Campion's "My sweetest Lesbia" is the first song in Rosseter's _A Booke of Ayres_ (London, 1601). As you say, it starts in "3" time. The lute tablature starts like this:
|\ |\ |\ |\ |\ | |\ |\ |\ |\ | | |. |\ | _e____c____a__a_______ _a____a__|_a_____e__|_ _________|_______a__|_ _c____b__|_c________|_ _________|_______c__|_ _________|__________|_ After the C-slash the tablature continues like this: |\ |\ | |\ | | _____a_________a_______ _e___c___e___________|_ _f_______f_____c__d__|_ _e__________e________|_ _c___a___c___________|_ _____________________|_ It is important to understand what the rhythmic relationship is between the two sections. There are times when it can be difficult to decide, but in this case I think it is very straightforward. Something has to stay the same from one section to the other, and by and large it is the slow pulse which remains constant. This means that the beat of the dotted minim in the "3" section is the same as the semibreve in the "C-slash" section. In other words |\ | | = | |. | To get the proportion right in performance, it is important to feel that slow pulse, which means counting in dotted minims at the start. So for the first two bars |\ |\ |\ |\ |\ | |\ |\ |\ |\ | | |. |\ | _e____c____a__a_______ _a____a__|_a_____e__|_ _________|_______a__|_ _c____b__|_c________|_ _________|_______c__|_ _________|__________|_ count "one , one ", not "one, two, three, one, two, three." When you come to the C-slash section, the first two chords last as long as a dotted minim of the previous section. It helps to keep counting the same old "One" as before. This means that you would count "One and" for those first two chords of the new section. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Peter Nightingale" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, June 07, 2004 5:38 PM Subject: My Sweetest Lesbia > Dear List, > > Campion's My Sweetest Lesbia is mostly in 3/4 (indicated by a 3 in the > original tab), but the last two measures are in 4/4 (or perhaps 2/2 would > better reflect the C-slash in the original). > > How should this be played. Does the duration of the 1/4 notes stay the > same throughout, or should the tempo speed up by a factor 4/3 so that the > time between down beats stays the same? If neither, then what? > > Peter.
