Author: kdk ★2017
Date: 2013-03-30 22:12
Garth, thank you for the clarification. In the specific measures (15 and 17) I would have different advice, although I'd stand by my original suggestions in the 4th and 7th bars after Tempo I.
It's important that the triplet 8ths each take up an honest beat. Maybe the easiest way to do that is to begin mentally subdividing into triplets on beat 2 (the tied F quarter-note). Then you can sense the first 8th of the triplet on beat 3 and play the others in tempo (it's only a 5-note chromatic scale - I assume this isn't in itself a technical problem). If you have trouble feeling the beginning of the first triplet, articulate it a few times. You might still check yourself against a metronome to be sure you aren't rushing (which if anything would detract, not add to the expressive quality of the passage).
As to the dotted 8ths in 15 and 17, it's possible to get too fussy with them and I wouldn't make absolute metronomic (mathematical) accuracy a first consideration, at least not in this style. If you listen to professional performances, you hear a lot of different versions of dotted rhythms. What shouldn't vary is when the next beat falls. Although there is certainly an absolutely correct execution, the important thing here, I think, is to make some distinction between the 16th (or pair of 32nds) and what a triplet 8th would have sounded like if that had been written. So, whether the note(s) following the dotted 8th are exactly in the place of the fourth 16th note is less important than just playing it later than a last triplet 8th note would be, while still playing the next beat (the triplet in bar 17) on time. In this case, concentrate on the pulse and less on the subdivision.
There are many instances in ensemble music where more accuracy is needed so that notes that are meant to sound together do, but that isn't the case here (especially since we don't even have an accompaniment to relate the melody to).
If you're playing in an ensemble, the conductor will let you know (as a section) if he wants a particular execution of those figures. Often, conductors want dotted figures to be played with the last note even later than mathematical precision would dictate.
Karl
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