Klarinet Archive - Posting 000074.txt from 2008/12

From: "Keith" <bowenk@-----.com>
Subj: RE: [kl] Gran Partitta, again, Part 2
Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 20:00:02 -0500

Bear,

'Implied Changing Meters' were perfectly common in the baroque and classical
periods, but were called hemiolas, usually contrasting duple and triple
rhythms.

I just looked again at the score of Mvt. 2 Trio 2 (Dan's edition of course).
It is almost all in a very regular 3/4 pulse, though I would guess you are
speaking of the last few bars of each half of this trio. But it's really
more that two sets of voices, each in triple rhythm, overlap by one
quarter-note; this gives a neat surprise and a slight uncertainty over where
the pulse is. It depends how it is played, and it would be possible to make
it sound like a hemiola. However, that would be contrary to the implied
classical metrical rhythm (first beat of the bar is strongest in 3/4), and
there is nothing in the phrasing to suggest that this should be contradicted
(see Tony Pay's 'Phrasing in Contention' article in the archives) - quite
the reverse in fact, since the phrasing in each voice follows the expected
triple rhythm.

That's my reading of it, anyway, for what it's worth. You'll find plenty of
us willing to talk about this work for ever, not only Dan!

Keith Bowen

> > Hello, Everyone.
> > I have a few questions about the Gran Partitta, . . .
> > The Second Movement has 2 Trios, and it sounds
> > like Laughing Boy wrote a few phrases that Change
> > Meters in the Second Trio. . .
>
> There are no meter changes in the second movement,
> or anywhere else in the piece.

> Well it sure SOUNDS like a Change of Meter in that
Second Trio. Could you please look at the score again
and see if Laughing Boy used "Implied Changing Meters"?

> In Mozart's time, these were rare, but 100 years later,
Brahms and other composers used them a LOT! This is
where you may have a passage Officially in 4/4, but by
Beaming Eighth-Notes together in unexpected ways
Across Bar Lines, or by using Accents in unexpected
places, you can make a passage sound like 3/4 or 5/4, or
whatever meter, for a few bars. The result can be clever
and fun.

> (Remember that Mozart DID use Poly-Meters in one
passage of the Rondo of his Quartet for Oboe and
Strings! He had the strings playing boom-chick-chick
accompaniment in 6/8, while the Oboe was running up
and down in Sixteenth-Notes, written in 2/4, for a few
phrases!)

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