New Tutorial: Understanding Rhythm

[Poolman]

I have recently completed an in-depth look at how rhythm works in music. Thie resulting tutorial should be helpful to composers and students, though it is not for the faint-hearted.

Find it at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/terence.dwyer/Rhythm%20Tutorial.html

and you can also see all my other tutorials at
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/terence.dwyer/Tutorials.htm

Terry Dwyer

[Skysaw]

Terry,

This is the first I've seen of your tutorials, and I think they're very nice. I very briefly flipped through some of the older ones, but will take a better look later.

For Understanding Rhythm, I'd like to add a couple of comments. First, you state that when deciding on the written meter earlier composers used larger note values for slower music and smaller for faster. I've found that very often the opposite was true. Composers such as CPE Bach, Scarlatti, and to some extent Haydn come to mind for me. A typical adagio movement seems more likely to be marked 2/4 (actually 4/8) and contain much in the way of 32nd notes, while an allegro will use quarters or halves for the beat. Perhaps this is what you were saying and I misunderstood?

The other comment has to do with what you write regarding the 5/4 meter. I must say I do disagree with the notion that 2+3 is "incorrectly barred." Rebarring the Tchaikovsky passage you cited by shifting the barlines over two beats would not make sense at all when taking into account the beginnings and endings of the phrases. Moreover, the opening bars of the movement have shifting division every other measure: (3+2)+(2+3), which does not seem resolvable according to your rules. Even if you do not hear the division this way, I'm sure you agree that a piece *could* be written with this pulse. What then?

I apologize if this seems nit-picky. Overall, I do think this is an excellent tutorial.

[Rhap2]

Terry:

A REALLY GREAT TUTORIAL on Rhythm. Well narrated and graphically explained. Thank you for doing this for all of us, either as a review or as a first-time run through.

Jack

[Garritan]

Terry,

What a terrific group of tutorials you did on Rhythm. An excellent treatment of Time Signatures, Accents and Meter, Ssort notes-tuplets and cross rhythms, and phrase construction. We well articulated and the integration with online scorch examples allow learners to see the score while hearing it. Well-writtena and a very good choice of examples.

This is a real benefit to anyone who wants to learn more about rhythm.

Thanks very much for posting this.

Gary Garritan

[Poolman]

Hi Jamie - Good of you to take an interest. May I answer your points?

For Understanding Rhythm, I'd like to add a couple of comments. First, you state that when deciding on the written meter earlier composers used larger note values for slower music and smaller for faster. I've found that very often the opposite was true. Composers such as CPE Bach, Scarlatti, and to some extent Haydn come to mind for me. A typical adagio movement seems more likely to be marked 2/4 (actually 4/8) and contain much in the way of 32nd notes, while an allegro will use quarters or halves for the beat. Perhaps this is what you were saying and I misunderstood?

I didn't say "earlier composers", which you have taken to mean 18c people; I said "originally" and I am thinking much further back into Mediaeval music, later Masses, even Monteverdi perhaps. They used white notes for slow music, black for fast.

The other comment has to do with what you write regarding the 5/4 meter. I must say I do disagree with the notion that 2+3 is "incorrectly barred." Rebarring the Tchaikovsky passage you cited by shifting the barlines over two beats would not make sense at all when taking into account the beginnings and endings of the phrases.

Why not? Many, many a piece starts with an incomplete bar and ends with a shorter bar to compensate. In this case if I shift the bar lines we begin with two upbeats and end every phrase with a dotted minim (accented into the bargain). Makes perfect sense to me.

Moreover, the opening bars of the movement have shifting division every other measure: (3+2)+(2+3), which does not seem resolvable according to your rules. Even if you do not hear the division this way, I'm sure you agree that a piece *could* be written with this pulse. What then?

Jamie, have you read only Part 1 of this series? Later on I quote this very opening and point out the alternating accenting.

The crucial point I am trying to make is that not every bar line indicates a main accent, and that, either by carelessness or by deliberate manipulation, a composer will "move" the barlines and contradict the official metre. Furthermore, he can use different forms of the quasi-barring within the same piece - a point I make with many of the other examples I give. I think we see eye to eye on this one.

Terry

[SeanHannifin]

Poolman, this looks great! It addresses issues and questions I have had before regarding rhythm and time signatures; I am sure I will learn a lot from this.

Thank you! :)

[rwayland]

Greetings, Terry. I have not yet looked at your tutorial. I just wanted to comment that I am pleased to see you have appeared again.

Richard

[billp]

Terry,
Thank for this great tutorial. Your clear explanations of thorny topics are always refreshingly excellent.

[Leaf]

Professor Poolman,

Thanks very much for posting this, and the link to the others. This, when i open it with Firefox browser, it suggest i click a button to find "missing plug-in" but when I click that it says "no suitable plug-in found". I'll log in later with Mac and try it with Safari broswer, if it doesn't work I'll let you know, just so you'll know, and I'll then use IE which I'm sure will work.

David

[joaz]

Nice tutorial Terry.

I particularly enjoyed the Bach right at the end.
Some people play Bach as though it is just a never-ending stream of semi-quavers.

But as you so ably demonstrated, there are wonderful phrases hidden in the passage-work, for those who can discern them.

regards Joe

[JonFairhurst]

Professor Poolman,

Thanks very much for posting this, and the link to the others. This, when i open it with Firefox browser, it suggest i click a button to find "missing plug-in" but when I click that it says "no suitable plug-in found". I'll log in later with Mac and try it with Safari broswer, if it doesn't work I'll let you know, just so you'll know, and I'll then use IE which I'm sure will work.

DavidDavid,

Scroll to the bottom of the page. There's a link to the Sibelius Scorch plugin.

(I had the same initial experience.)

[Jeff Turner]

Terry,

I want to commend you on a very thorough tutorial.

But I do agree with Jamie, that your generalization about beaming 5/4 always as 3+2 is something I don't agree with. The beaming of 3 should not always be at the beginning of a bar.

Your example of Brubeck's TAKE FIVE does support that example.

In contrast take a look at Brubeck's BLUE RONDO ALA TURK.
It's in 9/8 with three bars of 2+2+2+3, and one bar of 3+3+3.

You stated that the music should dictate the beaming which I couldn't agree more with. But I believe the 2's and 3's can be anywhere within each bar.

Jeff

[Poolman]

Terry,

I want to commend you on a very thorough tutorial.

But I do agree with Jamie, that your generalization about beaming 5/4 always as 3+2 is something I don't agree with. The beaming of 3 should not always be at the beginning of a bar.

Your example of Brubeck's TAKE FIVE does support that example.

In contrast take a look at Brubeck's BLUE RONDO ALA TURK.
It's in 9/8 with three bars of 2+2+2+3, and one bar of 3+3+3.

You stated that the music should dictate the beaming which I couldn't agree more with. But I believe the 2's and 3's can be anywhere within each bar.

Jeff
Jeff,

We seem to have our wires crossed: you are talking about beaming, I was talking about the main (first) accent of the bar. I go mainly by the agogic principle, i.e. that the longer portion of the bar (3 beats) is more accented than the shorter (2 beats). So I am arguing for a rethink about the position of the barlines (which are supposed to imply a main accent on the first beat). Of course the 2's and 3's can be anywhere within each bar, and they frequently are: my examples of wrong barring concentrate on passages where the groupings are consistent. The first Tchaikovsky example I gave ("Trio" section of the 5/4 movement) has a great thumping accent on the third beat of each bar, confirmed by a) a longer note there, b) a grinding discord there, and c) swell marks culminating there. (And there's even an accent mark there in the first bar, in my score.) Just try to imagine the barlines in front of these points instead of where they actually are, and you would see my preferred barring.

For you and anyone else who is having difficulty accepting that phrases can cross the barline, why not consider the Baroque Gavotte, which is in 4/4 time always beginning on the third beat of the bar and ending with a half bar. But this is true of every phrase within the piece. 34/1234/1234/1234/12. This way the barlines coincide with the accents; in the Tchaikovsky they don't. He should have barred it 45/12345/12 for each two-bar phrase.

Perhaps at the end of the day I should lay down my arms and say "Heck, the barlines mean little or nothing, they are only a guide to the eye" After all my whole analysis was devoted to showing people that barlines cannot be trusted to show where the real accents are.

Terry

[Jeff Turner]

Terry,

Barlines do mean nothing. Their only purpose is to aid the musician in reading, without out them things would be un-necessarily complicated.

The point that we seem to disagree on, I don't think that 3's are always more accented than the 2's.

Jeff

[Ed Sharpe]

Terry,

Barlines do mean nothing. Their only purpose is to aid the musician in reading, without out them things would be un-necessarily complicated.

The point that we seem to disagree on, I don't think that 3's are always more accented than the 2's.

Jeff

So Terry I think I agree with Jeff on this point, I will offer two examples, one of 9 divided 2+2+2+3 and one of 5 divided 2+3 (along with 7 divided 2+2+3).

A Rock piece in 9/8 divide 2+2+2+3:
Midnight on the 101 North (Only the score is available, no MP3 at this time)

http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=16912


Drinking the Kool-Aid! (the MP3 is NOT GPO)

Piano & Violin in 5/8 (divided 2+3) and 7/8 (divided 2+2+3)
http://www.sibeliusmusic.com/cgi-bin/show_score.pl?scoreid=41725

Ed

[Poolman]

Ed and Jeff,

What I think needs to be made clear is that, in a group notated as 2 + 3, e.g. minim followed by dotted minim, or crotchet crotchet minim crotchet, and so on, the third beat is the accented one by virtue of the agogic principle. I am firm on this! But this operates only if there are not other, over-riding factors involved. I am saying that in irregular time signatures, the sub-group with the most beats in it is the accented one, other things being equal.

It is all too easy to come up with examples that seem to prove me wrong because other factors over-ride the agogic principle. To quote from my tutorial Part 2, "It follows that the system of harmonic change adopted by the composer has a profound effect on the metrical construction of the piece, far more perhaps than any other method other than the agogic." In Brubeck's Take Five, it is the constant changing of the chord on the 4th beat that establishes the 3 + 2 pattern, regardless of various contrary accent shiftings above. The same is true in his Blue Rondo a la Turk, where the harmonic shift on the 7th beat establishes the first group of 6 as the major one, to Jeff's delight. I have listened to Ed Sharpe's rock piece, and find that it keeps to my principles after all. The 9/8 bar is not really divided into 2+2+2+3, it is clearly 3 long beats followed by three short beats, in other words really a bar of 3/4 time followed by a bar of 3/8, repeatedly (so is Blue Rondo a la Turk). So from the agogic principle, the harmonic principle, and even the metric principle, the main accent is on the first beat of the bar. Correctly barred, no problem.

Just remember that circumstances alter cases, and that the exception proves the rule! But above all, remember that my tutorial stresses that each type of accent operates other things being equal. When different places in the bar compete for attention, anything can happen.

Terry