Amy,
Thanks for the lesson about hemiolas.
Since your ears are far more musically educated than mine, perhaps you can say
somethinng informative about this rendition of Beaumont Rag by Mark O'Connor
that I cited in an earlier message:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJuXNiybth0
For the first 30 or 40 seconds, I find both the beat and the phrasing pretty
clear. Then he starts doing some things that I think wouldn't work well at a
contra dance unless there were some other band member(s) keeping the dancers on
track, Then he goes back to playing with clear beat and phrasing for a while,
then off on another flight of fancy, etc.
On any of those "flights of fancy" is he doing the "punchign the hemiola" thing
that you write about? Can you offer any technical insight into what other
things he's doing--and just why they may be confusing for dances though
enjoyable for listeners--at a level that would be accessible to us musical
muggles out here?
--Jim
> On May 2, 2022, at 8:27 AM, Amy Cann via Contra Callers
> <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> ...
> I've been wondering during this whole thread if their version involves
> punching the heck out of the hemiola in the B part?
>
> (hemiola: Italian for "I'm going to mess with your head by moving the
> emPHAsis to a new syLAHble")
>
> People who aren't paper-trained, don't flinch, ok?
> You can do this visually.
>
> Look at this version: http://www.folktunefinder.com/tunes/113330
>
> and look **carefully** at the beginning of the sixth and seventh lines.
>
> Look at the three heavy black horizontal "BEAMS" -- do you see how
> they bind the notes into groups of four? That's the grouping we dance
> to - we put our feet down on those "diggachucka, diggachucka"'s.
> ONE-234 ONE -234. Our feet land on the ONEs.
>
> Now look carefully at the blobby dark oval HEADS of the notes.
>
> Do you see the four little slanty LOW-MEDIUM-HIGH, LOW-MEDIUM-HIGH bunches?
>
> That's the hemiola.
>
> For fiddlers, whacking that LOW note comes natural. The bow just
> automatically stomps on it. ONE-23 ONE-23 ONE-23 ONE-23
>
> So you end up with an internally conflicted
>
> ONE-two-three-ONE two-three-ONE-two three-ONE-two-three.
>
> which in playwriting is delicious. Internal conflicts are the spice of drama.
>
> But in a dance?
>
> IF the fiddlers whack the threes AND the rhythm section stays true and honest,
> the bass/guitar/piano keep up a steady BOOM chuck BOOM chuck,
> you have zesty syncopation on top of expected solidity and all is well.
>
> BUT.
>
> If the band decides to be all cool and EVERYbody hits the threes,
> everyone jumps on the hemiola accents with both feet, the dancers will
> start to fall over theirs.
>
>
> There's an obscure tune called "Catharsis" that sometimes inspires
> this same unfortunate circumstance, which the composer regrets.
>
<snip>
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