On Saturday, May 31, 2003, at 09:40 AM, Michael Edwards wrote:
For instance (and I know this has been discussed before, and I think I
posted on it), if I were writing a jazz-like piece that used swing rhythm, I
would want to notate it in a metre such as 12/8, or 4/4 with dotted rhythms,
according to the effect I wanted. I am aware that jazz performers often use
straight rhythms, and just understand that they're to be swung. But I would not
choose to use this convention, because it is understood only within the jazz
tradition. My background is not in that tradition, and I don't want to write
scores that can be understood only by people familiar with that tradition.
Michael,
I suppose this would depend on whether you wanted a parody of how jazz musicians play eighth notes (which is what you would get with 12/8 or [worse] dotted eighth-sixteenth notation), or wanted some actual reasonable facsimile of idiomatic swing. (The former may well be what you want, given what you write below -- I just thought I ought to point out that a genuine swing feel is *nothing like* 12/8.)
One disadvantage of this system is that it makes it more difficult to know
what to do in a jazz piece if there is a passage you want played straight.
Since the notation is often straight anyway even when it's intended to be swung,
it doesn't leave you any reliable way of using notation to indicate straight
playing. Presumably you would have to write in "Play straight", and then,
later, "Play swung", when the straight passage ends, and so on. This seems a
bit inadequate to my way of thinking when you could use notation more literally
to *notate* the effects you want.
This would be incredibly cumbersome and impractical, precisely because authentic-sounding swing depends so heavily on a set of internalized conventions. (And, of course, there are many jazz musicians out there who have internalized bad conventions, but that's a whole 'nother can of worms). But even if you did notate swing rhythms literally -- which would involve writing strings of eighth notes as eighth notes; short anticipations as either an eighth-note triplet or a sixteenth note tied to either an eighth note or a quarter note (depending on tempo, volume, etc); all internal accents and phrasing written out instead of expected -- none of this would actually do much good if the players haven't internalized the sound of swing from good recorded examples. Absent that, nothing in the written notation is going to help the players sound any less lame (although some things will make them sound *more* lame -- like 12/8 or dotted eight-sixteenth notation). Anyway, getting authentic-sounding swing requires players who are actually familiar with the style.
- Darcy
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