Hemiola versus syncopation?
BestStudentViolins.com
primary accent always on the first beat, and then in some passages you
have the measure divided up into three sets of 1/8th notes in this
fashion:
*1* & 2 -- *&* 3 &
such that the accent in these passages falls on the 1 and the and of 2
Is this hemiola or syncopation?
My understanding is that syncopation occurs when the accent falls in
an unexpected place, and that hemiola is 2 against 3.
This is a simple work and the accompanying line mirrors the shape of
the melodic line, so is not an issue.
Your thoughts?
Connie
Steinar Børmer
| If you have a work which is in 3/4, pretty much *1* 2 3, etc. with a
| primary accent always on the first beat, and then in some passages you
| have the measure divided up into three sets of 1/8th notes in this
| fashion:
|
| *1* & 2 -- *&* 3 &
|
| such that the accent in these passages falls on the 1 and the and of 2
|
| Is this hemiola or syncopation?
Certainly not a hemiola! A hemiola is more like three (bars) against
two, where two bars in 3/4 get three heavy beats; (bar 1) beat 1 and 3
--- (bar 2) beat 2. Like this:
*1* - 2 - *3* | 1 - *2* - 3
It usually sounds like three bars of 2/4 in a 3/4 movement.
| My understanding is that syncopation occurs when the accent falls in
| an unexpected place [...]
Yes, that's closer.
See these pages for a good explanation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiola
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncopation
--
SB
When in doubt, use brute force.
-- Ken Thompson
Arthur Ness
hemiola is not
sycopation, it is change of meter made through the notation. Two measures
of, say, 3/4 are played as a measure of 3/2, often in baroque music at the
approach to a cadence as a kind of written out ritard:
1_2_3_| 1_2_3_ | becomes
1_&_2_| &_3_&_ |
Usually they are not played against one another, but sometimes
"simulataneous" hemiola appears when one voice has, say, 6/8 and the other
3/4. Josquin is fond of this kind of cross rhythm. I still would not call
it syncopation. It's a polymeter.
============================
"BestStudentViolins.com" <SunMusi...@gmail.com> wrote in message
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> What you describe is sesquialtera (3/4 becoming 6/8), not hemiola. And
> hemiola is not
> sycopation, it is change of meter made through the notation. Two measures
> of, say, 3/4 are played as a measure of 3/2, often in baroque music at the
> approach to a cadence as a kind of written out ritard:
>
> 1_2_3_| 1_2_3_ | becomes
> 1_&_2_| &_3_&_ |
>
> Usually they are not played against one another, but sometimes
> "simulataneous" hemiola appears when one voice has, say, 6/8 and the other
> 3/4. Josquin is fond of this kind of cross rhythm. I still would not call
> it syncopation. It's a polymeter.
Well, polymeter today usually means two or more different meters
notated simultaneously, though the OED does list an earlier nonce-
usage describing "The succession of different metrical patterns in
16th-cent. vocal music." Since hemiola does represent a shift in the
usual metrical positions of accent, it is ordinarily regarded as a
type of syncopation, albeit of a very special sort.
--
Jerry Kohl
"Légpárnás hajóm tele van angolnákkal."
Alain Naigeon
1193090047.8...@k35g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
On Oct 20, 12:37 pm, "Arthur Ness" <arthurjn...@verizon.net> wrote:
> What you describe is sesquialtera (3/4 becoming 6/8), not hemiola. And
> hemiola is not
> sycopation, it is change of meter made through the notation. Two measures
> of, say, 3/4 are played as a measure of 3/2, often in baroque music at the
> approach to a cadence as a kind of written out ritard:
>
> 1_2_3_| 1_2_3_ | becomes
> 1_&_2_| &_3_&_ |
>
> Usually they are not played against one another, but sometimes
> "simulataneous" hemiola appears when one voice has, say, 6/8 and the other
> 3/4. Josquin is fond of this kind of cross rhythm. I still would not
> call
> it syncopation. It's a polymeter.
Well, polymeter today usually means two or more different meters
notated simultaneously, though the OED does list an earlier nonce-
usage describing "The succession of different metrical patterns in
16th-cent. vocal music."
On saturday evening I've attended a concert by Mala punica (Memelsdorff),
playing Ars subtilior (1380-1400), and we've listened to a lot of polymeter
effects ;-) Including those in Caserta's "Amour m'as le cueur mis...", and
also "Dame zentil" !
--
Français *==> "Musique renaissance" <==* English
midi - facsimiles - ligatures - mensuration
http://anaigeon.free.fr | http://www.medieval.org/emfaq/anaigeon/
Alain Naigeon - anai...@free.fr - Oberhoffen/Moder, France
Margo Schulter
> On saturday evening I've attended a concert by Mala punica
> (Memelsdorff), playing Ars subtilior (1380-1400), and we've
> listened to a lot of polymeter effects ;-) Including those
> in Caserta's "Amour m'as le cueur mis...", and also "Dame
> zentil" ! >
Hello, Alain.
Please let me agree: if people mention "polymeter," the late
14th century might be one of my first associations. The
specific figure of hemiola is something I associate with
this century, althoug, of course, it occurs later too.
What I especially think of is this kind of cadence:
1 2 3 4 5 6 | 1...
E D D C# D
B A G# A
G F E D
where the lower voices are moving in 3/4 and the highest
in 6/8, if we take the minim to be transcribed as an
eighth note or quaver.
Anyway, those pieces are great examples, not to mention
Solage and Ciconia, among others.
Most appreciatively,
Margo Schulter
msch...@calweb.com
RT
(from Gk. hemilios: ‘the whole and a half’; Lat. sesquialtera; It.:
emiolia).
The ratio 3:2. The term was first applied to music in connection with the
theory of pitch: when the string of the monochord was divided in this ratio
the two lengths sounded the interval of a 5th. From the 15th century, it was
used to signify the substitution of three imperfect notes for two perfect
ones in tempus perfectum (mensuration with three semibreves to the breve) or
prolatio maior (three minims to the semibreve). Such substitutions, which
were usually notated using coloration, were widely used in 15th-century
music. They were particularly prevalent in the English carol repertory,
which was described by Bukofzer as ‘hemiola music pure and simple’ (ex.1).
By extension, ‘hemiola’ in the modern metrical system denotes the
articulation of two units of triple metre as if they were notated as three
units of duple metre: in ex.2, from Act 4 of Lully’s Le bourgeois
gentilhomme (1670), the first bar contains two triple units, and the second
has three duple units. This is a common feature of Baroque music, especially
of the French courante, and is used for giving rhythmic variety to dances
and helping to effect an allargando at the end of a longer movement; Handel
made much use of it. In the 19th century it was used by Schumann and often
by Brahms, and was an important feature of the Viennese waltz. Hemiola is a
distinguishing feature of such folkdances as the Andalusian polo and the
Central American huapango, rhythmic characteristics of which were
incorporated by Bernstein into ‘America’ from West Side Story (ex.3).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
M.F. Bukofzer: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music (New York, 1950),
165
W. Tell: ‘Die Hemiole bei Bach’, BJb, xxxix (1951–2), 47–53
K.P. Bernet Kempers: ‘Hemiolenrhythmik bei Mozart’, Festschrift Helmut
Osthoff, ed. L. Hoffmann-Erbrecht and H. Hucke (Tutzing, 1961), 155–61
M.B. Collins: ‘The Performance of Sesquialtera and Hemiolia in the 16th
Century’, JAMS, xvii (1964), 5–28
C. Willner: ‘The Two-Length Bar Revisited: Händel and the Hemiola’,
Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, iv (1991), 208–31
H. Cinnamon: ‘New Observations on Voice Leading, Hemiola, and their Roles in
Tonal and Rhythmic Structures in Chopin’s Prelude in B minor, op.28, no.6’,
Intégral, vi (1992), 66–106
V. Corrigan: ‘Hemiola in the Eighteenth Century’, Johann Sebastian: a
Tercentenary Celebration, ed. S.L. Benstock (Westport, CT, 1992), 23–32
"Margo Schulter" <msch...@web1.calweb.com> wrote in message
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Alain Naigeon
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> Please let me agree: if people mention "polymeter," the late
> 14th century might be one of my first associations. The
> specific figure of hemiola is something I associate with
> this century, althoug, of course, it occurs later too.
>
> What I especially think of is this kind of cadence:
>
> 1 2 3 4 5 6 | 1...
> E D D C# D
> B A G# A
> G F E D
>
> where the lower voices are moving in 3/4 and the highest
> in 6/8, if we take the minim to be transcribed as an
> eighth note or quaver.
Thank you once again for this example, Margo!
Roland Hutchinson
names, respectively from Greek and Latin, for the same thing, namely the
ratio 3:2 ?
--
Roland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food.
NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to
remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it.
Margo Schulter
> Have we agreed yet that "hemiola" and "sesquialtera" are basically two
> names, respectively from Greek and Latin, for the same thing, namely the
> ratio 3:2 ?
Hi, Roland.
If we're speaking about proportions in the abstract, I agree indeed;
for example, I often use the term sesquialtera simply to mean "the ratio
of a pure 3:2 fifth," and it's used that way in lots of the literature.
The nuances of what the two terms might imply in a specifically rhythmic
context might get more complicated, as this thread explores; but I'd take
either term in itself to mean precisely a 3:2 ratio, with the Latin
translating more or less "and again a half."