I am working on Mussorgsky's *Pictures at an Exhibition* and in the last movement he specifically changes from cut time to 2/2. I am not sure of the significance of this, but there it is. (The 2/2 section has a lot of half note triplets.)
Knute Snortum (via Gmail) On Fri, Jun 27, 2014 at 5:44 AM, Andrew A. Cashner <andrewacash...@gmail.com > wrote: > >> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- >> From: "Phil Holmes" <m...@philholmes.net> >> To: "Patrick or Cynthia Karl" <pck...@mac.com>, <lilypond-user@gnu.org> >> Cc: >> Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2014 08:45:46 +0100 >> Subject: Re: Variable length bars >> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patrick or Cynthia Karl" < >> pck...@mac.com> >> To: <lilypond-user@gnu.org> >> Sent: Thursday, June 26, 2014 10:53 PM >> Subject: Variable length bars >> >> >> >>> I'm trying to set a John Dowland piece (Come Ye Heavy States of Night) >>> which has a single initial time signature of "4/2 2/2" followed by measures >>> that are either 4 half-note beats or 2 half-note beats long, in >>> quasi-random fashion. >>> >>> It's clear that if I can get that time signature printed, I can set the >>> piece by appropriate use of \set Timing.measureLength. >>> >>> Can anyone point me to a way to do that? >>> >>> Thanks >>> >> >> I'm sure someone else can show how to put two time sigs, one after the >> other, but it may be worth noting that this is not true to the original. >> Dowland set it as mensural 4/4 time, with 2/2 in the lute tablature. See >> http://imslp.org/wiki/The_Second_Book_of_Songes_(Dowland,_John) for the >> original score. >> >> -- >> Phil Holmes >> >> > With respect and collegiality, I just wanted to clarify that Dowland's > original time signatures are C and "cut C": these mensural time signatures > only look like modern 4/4 or 2/2, but they are not the same. The C > generally means that each tactus or metrical group is made up of two minims > (modern half notes), and the cut C means that each tactus is made up of two > semibreves (modern whole notes). But in this case I think the C meter just > means, "the pulse moves in minims"--it does not indicate a regular grouping > of beats the way a modern meter does. Downand's bar lines, it seems to me, > indicate musical and poetic phrases, not a metrical pattern. > > I know there are wide disagreement about this, but in transcribing for > modern performers, I think one should render the original into basic modern > notation--that is, notation that will not surprise modern performers--while > doing the least violence to the original. I don't think you gain any > advantage in a piece like this from having mixed meters, and certainly not > from having two simultaneous meters. > > In this case, I would recommend transcribing the piece in 4/2, with > perhaps an odd 2/2 bar where necessary. Even if this means that a phrase > ends in the middle of a bar, I think you can trust modern performers to > recognize that and not automatically put a strong downbeat on the first > beat of every bar. If you think about how the piece should sound, > sensitive performers will probably produce similar results regardless of > where you put the bar lines. > > Best, > Andrew Cashner > > _______________________________________________ > lilypond-user mailing list > lilypond-user@gnu.org > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user > >
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