 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jim S.
Date: 2002-02-06 17:19
Here's a question I would be ashamed to ask outside of this anonymous forum:
In 6/8 time when there are two 6 note 16th note figures per measure and the conductor is beating two beats to the measure, do you play the figures as four triplets per measure or as six two note pairs, three to the beat?
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Author: John Scorgie
Date: 2002-02-06 17:39
If there are no markings on the page, you should probably play them as two 6 note groups, one group to a beat (or as you put it, six two note groups, three to a beat). Often there will be a "6" above or below such groups. If triplets are intended, you will sometimes see a "3" and "3" above or below each group of 6. You should be able to tell which way to play from the character of the music. For example, the 6 note groups in The Moldau from Smetana's Ma Vlast are obviously to be played as sextolets (?) rather than as double triplets, while in a Tarantella you would want to maintain a triplet feeling.
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Author: Todd W.
Date: 2002-02-06 17:40
Jim --
Even though the conductor is beating two beats to a measure, to get the sense of the rhythm I would initially think of the piece as having six beats to a measure. So, a measure containing six eighth notes would be counted 1 2 3 4 5 6 (probably with slight accents on 1 and 4), and a measure containing 12 16th notes would be counted 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 6 and (again probably with slight accents on 1 and 4). I think that's what you mean by "six two note pairs, three to the beat."
Hope this is clear and helps.
Todd W
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Author: Jim S.
Date: 2002-02-06 17:54
Yes, both replies are helpful. My initial thought was that the pulse should be able to be subdivided into 6 beats per measure unless otherwise indicated, but then I began to doubt myself.
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Author: Emms
Date: 2002-02-06 21:38
If the 6/8 is fast, you won't have much time to count the eighth notes.. Just get the feel of six sixteenths to the beat. With practise, you can play this without much thinking.
John, in 6/8, I've never seen the notes tripleted together when there are sixteen sixteenths in a bar. (can I call them semiquavers?) To triplet, you play 3 notes in the time of 2, therefore if they were tripleted, you would lose some notes from the bar (measure). I'm getting so mixed up with these American versions of notes and bars, I think I'll leave this right here. Hope it makes sense to you.
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Author: John Scorgie
Date: 2002-02-07 05:52
Emms --
In 6/8 time, you DO NOT have 16 16th notes to a bar. You have 12 16th notes to a bar. Each group of 6 gets one beat. If the 16ths are triplets, each group of 3 gets half a beat. If you will just listen to recordings of 1) The Moldau (Smetana) and 2) any old Tarantella, what I was saying will become clear.
The notations we are talking about are not specifically American. You can find them in music published by Boosey & Hawkes (UK), Breitkopf & Hartel (D), Ricordi (I) and others.
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Author: Emms
Date: 2002-02-07 07:42
OOPS. I said I was getting confused with the notes. I use semiquavers, not sixteenth notes, and my maths last night couldn't work things out properly. I meant 12 sixteenths!!!! I know these are published by Boosey etc, but for the American audience. We call these by their far more confusing names still. We still have our miles, but talk about about kilometers. We're a hard bunch to change.
If the notes are tripleted in 6/8, you would need 18 sixteenth notes to make a full bar. Each beat would have 9 notes.
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Author: Emms
Date: 2002-02-07 13:42
John -
quote from 'The Cambridge Music Guide', edited by Stanley Sadie.
'The American note names work on a mathematical basis of proportional lengths (as do the German); the BRITISH (like most other Europeans) preserve something of the original Latin names.
quote from 'The AB guide to music theory' by Eric Taylor
'A triplet, then, is a group of three equal notes performed in the time normally taken by two notes of the same kind.'
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Author: Emms
Date: 2002-02-07 13:56
BTW, a 6 above a group of notes means the six notes are played in the time of four.
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