Unfortunately i could not down load the mp3 file David.
Awfully naked score! i don't think I could resist mucking it up more
if it were mine. The idea is very familiar to me... my music wouldn't
exist without it. I do like the idea of using a bracket to delineate
internal phrasing --
Creston on nomenclature:
"...a 1/6 note triplet can be referred to (by the conductor) as a
'written quarter note' triplet, and a 1/12 note triplet as a 'written
eight note' triplet.
Basically how he sets this up is by
in a 4/4 measure the pulse is the quarter note. The 'primary units'
are at the eight note (8/8) and the 'extrametrical units' are at the
triplet making it: 12/12!
Never used it myself but loved the logic.
Jerry
On 30-Jun-05, at 9:55 PM, David W. Fenton wrote:
On 30 Jun 2005 at 10:46, Christopher Smith wrote:
On Jun 30, 2005, at 8:48 AM, Gerald Berg wrote:
Anyone ever read Paul Creston's Rational Metric Notation?
He advocates replaces 6/8 with 6/12.
I read another book of his on rhythm (I forget the name now) and liked
what he had to say on the subject. There is so little written on the
theory of rhythm, compared to harmony and form, that one might start
to think that harmony is the most important aspect of music!
I don't know the passage you mentioned, but he might be suggesting
6/12 instead of 6/8 for passages where the pulse changes from a
quarter to a dotted quarter in the SAME tempo (formerly "l'istesso
tempo"), or instead of writing eighth-note triplets. This would agree
with Ferneyhough's (and others') use of so-called "irrational" metres.
For me, there would have to be some greater clarity achieved than in
the example I gave. Triplets, or a simple Q=Q. over the barline, would
be perfectly clear for that example. No use complicating things for
such little gain. On the other hand, I STILL like 2 over Q. for 6/8,
as it clarifies things perfectly.
I'm puzzled by why one would want to "rationalize" 6/8 to 6/12,
because it breaks the entire older system on which the numbers are
based (there is no such thing as a "12th-note"), while not really
adding anything in the way of clarity. It's as though the idea is to
use fractions, which have always had nothing whatsoever to do with
time signatures.
As to clarifying subdivision shifts, 6 eighths followed by 3 quarters
could not be more clear, don't you think?
And in the repertory I play all the time, we have no difficulty
reading at sight and finding the metrical frameworks within the
lines, based on the rhythmic values that are there, and the motivic
shape. Here's a score that I played from with performance marks in
it, including marks to show metrical grouping within the larger meter
(which is 4/2):
http://www.dfenton.com/Collegium/SideBySideViols/Coperario.PDF
And here's a recording of a performance of that piece (all on one
line):
http://www.dfenton.com/Collegium/SideBySideViols/05 Coperario-Fantasy
à3.mp3
(if you listen carefully, you'll note that our ability to realize
what is marked in the score is limited, especially on the part of the
tenor viol player, who had only been playing tenor for 4 months, and
viol for 2 years at the time we performed; the top part is most
successfully realized; also, modern string players shouldn't freak
out about what looks like backwards bowings -- because of the
underhand grip of the viol, the strong bow is the push (up bow), and
the pull (down) is the weak bow)
The second page particularly shows the degree of polymetric interplay
between the parts. The 4/2 meter really has nothing much to do with
the actual musical content -- it's like the ether that carries a much
more complex musical surface, where there's a constant contrast
between and shifting of the 3 parts with different downbeats and
metrical groupings.
--
David W. Fenton http://www.bway.net/~dfenton
David Fenton Associates http://www.bway.net/~dfassoc
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