At 5:54 AM -0400 3/27/08, dhbailey wrote:
I agree that there is a different psychological aspect to various movements in a multi-movement work, where one duple meter may be 2/4 and another be 2/2, but I still maintain that given the same piece of music with the same metronome indication for the unit of beat, there won't be a difference among competent musicians between two versions of the same piece, one in 2/2 and one in 2/4.
Well, my Early Music Ensemble is working up a program a baroque chamber music, and you would think that the time signatures would have been pretty cut and dried, but they're far from it. One movement is in cut time. We're taking it in 4. The next movement is in common time. We're taking it in 2. And more often than not (especially in Telemann) an Andante in 4/4 is really at its best with a walking tempo on the 8th notes in a walking bass line.
Two lessons that I can see: (1) Time signatures and meters are NOT absolute. (2) You have to find the tempo that fits the music (and, with students, your players!).
I'm not sure whether that puts me on your side or the opposite side, but it seemed worth mentioning.
John -- John R. Howell, Assoc. Prof. of Music Virginia Tech Department of Music College of Liberal Arts & Human Sciences 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
