Klarinet Archive - Posting 000285.txt from 2010/10

From: "Lelia Loban" <lelialoban@-----.net>
Subj: [kl] The rythms in this wedding band
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:08:57 -0400


Dan Leeson wrote,
>>I have no idea how anyone would dance to this
band's wedding music. It makes my head go dizzy
trying to find the downbeat. Igor Popov and his
Bulgarian wedding band. I salute them all.>>

I love that CD! Slow and dignified 7/8 can be a thing of stately beauty, as
a processional, but I've seen Greeks dancing with powerful rhythm to a very
fast Macedonian 7/8 by accenting it as ONE two three four FIVE six seven,
with a heavy footstep on the accented notes, sometimes with a small footstep
on the unaccented notes and sometimes arm, hand and head gestures making the
"steps" for those unaccented notes. Sometimes in calm, gentle scenarios,
they'd keep everything graceful and flowing with a step on every beat (often
a number of dancers, both male and female, moving around without partners in
a circle) but no heavy accents. Often they'd mark the one and the five
simply by tilting the head from left to right on the one, then from right to
left on the five, or vice-versa, or they'd use gentle left or right
hand-waves.

In another type of 7/8 dance, with wilder music, they'd put a footstep on
every note but they'd accent them this way: LEFT, right, LEFT, right, LEFT,
right, JUMP-JUMP - the jump-jump crouching, with both feet, fast, on the
seven and the "and" of the seven, with arms and heads going like crazy the
whole time and arms either above the heads or way out to the sides with the
head aggressively forward on the jump-jump. I saw that jump-jump version in
dramatic scenarios where it was a threat-gesture. The person doing the
jump-jump step represented a predatory animal pouncing, a criminal or an
angry god brandishing knives or other weapons, while facing either the
audience or an adversary and making a ferocious face. Sometimes two male
dancers would face off from opposite sides of the stage and progress forward
until the last double jump squared them off for battle.

Once you can feel it, 7/8 meter is addictive. Shameless plug: I've used it
a few times, including (after a very short introductory passage) a piece for
wind quintet with timpani and marimba that I've posted online. From the
link below my signature, the piece is "Hecate, Queen of the Night."

Lelia Loban
http://members.sibeliusmusic.com/Lelia_Loban

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