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Re: Mozart, Bach and time signatures

Author: Tony Pay ★2017
Date: 2019-09-05 12:00

Playing a piece of classical music effectively involves understanding that what is written by the composer obeys the norms of the style MORE OR LESS.

So, the bar hierarchy can be strongly or weakly obeyed at the extremes, with gradations in between, to be decided by the performer.

The same is true of the structure of a phrase, which in the classical style BEGINS MORE OR LESS, and shades away more or less.

So one of the variants of a 4/4 bar hierarchy can be achieved by thinking of it as a 2/2 bar. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be ‘more in 4’ at a later point, because composers very often play with the variety of ‘more in 2’, ‘more in 4’ to expressive effect. A good example of that is the clarinet entry in the Mozart quintet, where the first bar is more in 2, the second bar more in 4.

But, it’s still worthwhile to bear in mind the natural 4/4 hierarchy in the second bar, so that the groups of four semiquavers don’t all have equal weight. This gives an attractive lightness to the gesture, which can otherwise seem rather prosaic.

Tony

Post Edited (2019-09-05 15:41)

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