Klarinet Archive - Posting 000514.txt from 2000/11
From: Tony@-----.uk (Tony Pay)
Subj: [kl] Writing seven triplets
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2000 10:28:55 -0500
On Thu, 9 Nov 2000 21:38:38 -0800 (PST), Bilwright@-----.net said:
> Avrahm Galper wrote:
>
> > At the beginning of the Brahms 2nd sonata there is an arpeggio that
> > ascends and ends with a group of five notes before a final C. There
> > is no point of subdividing that group. I just play the group as it
> > goes, 4 plus one.
Yes, there's a natural spaciness at the end of the bar that makes this a
natural solution, I agree.
You can show the last beat, if you fancy, by making the speedup plus a
slight change of colour as you reach the top-space E natural and go on
upwards, and that works too. Sometimes I do that.
[snip]
> ... it has been interesting to read that the opinion about playing
> this particular quintuple is not unanimous. In fact, of the 4 or 5
> explicit answers that were posted, the opinion was close to 50/50.
So my characteristic equivocation won't change that important statistic.
On Gervase's recording with Barenboim, he also shows the final 'Clara'
(D falling to C over the barline) by hanging on to the final D before
going on, but I find that OTT.
> If you didn't read my original question, I want to write seven notes
> in triplet rhythm without filling a final triplet with two rests in
> order to get back on the beat. How to do this?
Not being a paid-up member of the Beckmesser Society, I can't tell you
how you *should* do this.
However, I've seen different solutions to the problem in modern scores.
It's probably best to use two cues that reinforce each other.
The first is to change the time signature to 7/6, if it was 2/4 before.
(7/3 is an alternative, but isn't logically consistent, although that's
partially over-ridden by the resonance between that 3 on the bottom
line, and the 3's that I'm going to suggest as the second cue.)
The second is to write the first three eighth notes under a square
bracket with a 3 on top, and the remaining four under *two* brackets,
each with a 3 on top.
The first of these two brackets goes over the first three of the four,
the second over the *last* three of the four. (So the second and third
notes lie under both brackets.)
That's usually sufficient to make the idea clear.
Another, and I'd say better solution to the problem of how to write the
time signature of the bar is to use a different *sort* of
time-signature: a 7 on the top and an actual isolated eighth note
underneath, head up and stem down, with a bracket, open to the left and
closed to the right over it, and with a 3 above that -- all below the 7,
of course.
The brackets within the bar itself might then logically be left out, but
I think they're best included.
Hindemith sometimes used that sort of time-signature, with a 4 over a
quarter, or a 4 over an eighth to signify 4/4 and 4/8 respectively. The
extension of that, as above, can be a very useful trick with certain
modern scores. I once rebarred a piece by Birtwistle that I had to
conduct, using that notation, and it was much clearer for the players
than what's in the score.
Tony
--
_________ Tony Pay
|ony:-) 79 Southmoor Rd Tony@-----.uk
| |ay Oxford OX2 6RE GMN family artist: www.gmn.com
tel/fax 01865 553339
... Don't take life so seriously. It won't last.
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