At 6:16 PM -0400 4/15/07, David W. Fenton wrote:
My guess is that this is an artifact of the older practice of black vs. white notation. You can see something similar in one of Couperin's Tenebrae Lessons, which is in 3/2 also, but with 8th-note subdivisions with white noteheads. I'm foggy on the history of coloration so can't completely explain it, but I do know that there were multiple traditions of older rhythmic notation that continued to exist side-by-side with the "newer" practices.
I think you may be on to something. The original "coloration" to indicate duple subdivision (Phillipe de Vitry, c. 1320), used normal black notation with the coloration in red ink. There are some beautiful and fanciful 15th century examples, heart-shaped scores and such. But as white notation became the standard then black notation was used for coloration. (Josquin's funeral tribute to Okeghem was notated all in black, using that convention, which would only have been augenmusik for the singers, of course.) It might just be that "white 8th notes" was a made-up reflection of this kind of thing, reasoning that it represented triple subdivision over prevailing duple subdivision.
John -- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
