On 29 Jun 2005, at 2:20 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
On 29 Jun 2005 at 13:29, Christopher Smith wrote:
The piece was in a medium 4/4, but at one point we needed an extra two
beats (two half notes turned into a half and a whole) so rather than
insert a measure of 2/4 and screw up everyone's bar numbers, I made it
a measure of 6/4. That made it very clear that the beat was a quarter
note, and there were six of them in that measure, rather than whatever
3/2 would have implied (beat is a half note, with three of them? More
confusing for sight reading, IMHO, especially if I beat it in 6, which
I did.)
Well, to me, the confusion comes either way. If I saw 6/4 in that
context I'd think "two beats of dotted half,"
None of the players Chris and I write for would make that assumption in
playing our music.
What Chris wrote is the standard way of handling the situation he
describes.
I would think the smartest thing to do is to use 6/4 with a dotted
barline, or to simply write out what you mean, which is 4/4 + 2/4, or
even 4+2 over 4.
Both of those are much more confusing than simply writing 6/4.
I'm not at all clear on what is wrong with the switch to 2/4.
Actually, you anticipate the problem in your next sentence:
If you
want to make sure that the 2/4 is not landed on like a downbeat, then
3/2 seems to me to work very well.
It's more confusing in a sight-reading situation that 6/4, and it
implies an undesirable change in the rhythmic feel -- especially if
there's a rhythm section involved. If the drummer and bassist are
playing mostly 4/4, if they see a bar of 6/4, it means "keep doing
exactly what you're doing, but just insert two more beats before the
next downbeat," whereas 3/2 or 4+2/4 both imply a more dramatic shift
(in addition to being harder to read).
I was responding to the idea that a piece that is really 3 half-note
beats would be notated as 6/4, which makes no sense to me at all.
There is no inherent or logical reason why 6/4 can't be 3x2/4, and in
contemporary writing it's frequently used that way (especially at
slower tempos). The beam and rest patterns will immediately make it
clear whether 3x2/4 or 2x3/4 is intended.
- Darcy
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