On 29 Jun 2005 at 16:36, Andrew Stiller wrote: > > 'd be interested to know about any piece in 6/4 before 1850 which is > > clearly 3x2/4, do you know one? > > > > Johannes > > -- > > William Billings: "Modern Music." The text of the 6/4 section > addresses the issue directly, and makes it clear that compound 6/4 > was commonplace: > > "Through common and treble we jointly have run. > We'll give you their essence compounded in one. > Although we are strongly attached to the rest, > Six-four is the movement that pleases us best." > > Numerous other examples could be cited, but this one is particularly > blatant.
I understand neither the poem of the terminology. To me "compound 6/4" means two beats, and that's not what Johannes asked about. It seems to me that 3/2 and 6/4 are exactly analogous to 3/4 and 6/8 in every way. There are literally thousands of examples of music that exploits the ability to shift between the two subdivisions within a single piece, in all periods. I'm not sure what the Billings quote adds, unless you're interpreting it as meaning that 6/4 treated as 3 half-note beats. In that case, I'm puzzled, indeed, as I know of no music from that period that does that consistently (though plenty of patches within a piece notated as 6/4 may very well be in 3; see above). -- David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
