Haha. Well the quarter note gets the beat and there are only two quarter note triplets per measure. Perhaps some music theorist professional can give us more clues.
Ever wonder why we need 6/8 when 3/4 mean pretty much the same thing? It comes down to one thing, compumding allows us to fit more complex note groupings into a measure. For example, while you could count 3 sets of 8th notes as 6/8, it wouldn't be advanrageous. But try counting 4 eighth notes and 4 16ths in 3/4, get it? you would have to use more measures and it would still be harder to read...so we compound.
This is known as note grouping. When tempo and complicated note groupings occur, compounding time makes much more sense.
What you may mean.
The only thing I'm aware of that uses something close to what you explain is known as "additives"
It's archaic and i have never seen it in practice. I can't give you an example, only that it may look something like x+x+x / 8 meaning the first x would mean the first set of 8yh notes, the second the next group and the third x the last set.
As i said, the dot (.) makes this kind of useless, at least in western music.
20th Century music and compositions. All 12 tones (also known as twelve tone music) must be used before the tones can be repeated.
Example would Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Anton Weburn, John Cage. Much of the early compositions were done in Vienna. Pieces were short and very, I mean very dissonant.
Correct! What is incredible are the rules of 12 tone music. IIRC the rules are what make it truly atonal. Here are some of the rules 1)no notes can be doubled at the octave 2) melodic or harmonic elements (intervals) are to be avoided 3) and no note should be sustained to the point where it becomes a focal pitch.
John Cage used to study under Arnold Schoenberg. Schoenberg thought John Cage had no ear for harmony. Arnold Schoenberg that in order for a musician to succeed he must have some kind of ear for harmony.
Yeah, I think John Cage found tones outside the 12 we tend to recognize...paperclips and nails on the piano strings, etc. On the other hand, the pianist Bill Evans, in the 60's, wrote a couple of 12 tone pieces that are really pleasing and interesting to the ear, and make some sense. If I could be another musician, it would probably be Bill. Or Bird...or Joe Pass....and on.
4'33" is really the only piece I know from him. This one of the pieces that we studied back in college. Its funny how the piece was based on the ambience of the hall and everyone present for those 4 minutes and 33 seconds. What an event of history!!!
Grateful Dead pianist Tom Constantine studied under John Cage. Some of the parts from "Anthem of the Sun" are 12 tone based prepared piano played live during "the space jam" portion of the show. Tom's precise yet chaotic performance played against Pig Pens swirling gospel/blues drenched Hammond B3 really added a lot to the Dead's performances of that era. At one point Tom has all the muting pads off of the piano strings and is triggering the notes with a large gyroscope balanced and creating regular vibrations on the metal supporting the strings. That un-natural sound envelope together with the 12 tone composition sounded ethereal and otherworldly...
That's about the only enjoyable application of this that I've ever heard.
To the layman reader and I'm going to assume it since they are asking questions about standard notation, it is.
The example I gave was as simple as I could make it about how certain syncopations can be grouped more easily when a signature is compounded.
The 8th notes were just an example and not the point, kind of like widgets. When you teach 6/8 for the first time (something I do for a living btw) it is convention to start by having them read 3 8th note sets so they can make the connection of the feel as being very similar.
Other than that, what was the point of your post, to educate me? lol
Well hell, since nobody is watching (or reading, which I suspect is true) let us debate then, if for nothing else...shits and giggles. ;)
I say you say this: 3/4 counted in 8th notes is triple duplets with one primary accent on the "one" and two weak beats on the "two" and "three".
I say that is subjective.
Let us do this - not accent the "one" alone, but rather the 1 and the "and" of the 2, thus creating what is known as the 2 over 3 feel. Dividing each measure in half, and creating two dotted quarter notes.
Ah, this allows us to play multiple chords in the same measure, in 3/4, no?
While that | 1 + 2 + 3 + | syncopation is the heart of the "jazz waltz" feel, it doesn't, per se, equal the 6/8 duple triplet function any more than 6/4 is the same as two consecutive bars of 3/4 shmushed together.
It's just that common usage dictates that each of these meters (3/4, 6/8, 6/4) serves different stylistic purposes and are not normally freely interchangeable (any more so than 4/4 and 2/2 and 2/4 are).
The syncopated 2 over 3 feel is not the same as the 6 over 2 feel generated by 6/8, at least not in my experience.
Composers have to be aware of these nuances to spare those who are obliged to read their sheet music unnecessary hardship and confusion.
I never said they were interchangeable. I said they were pretty much the same thing. The true difference being the ability to group notes differently, or more simply to read.
If you ask me, tempo has more to do with 3/4 to 6/8 than most anything. My point with (and you nailed it) with the jazz waltz feel was complicated groupings in 3/4 don't make a lot of sense, unless you already know what your looking at.
I will see things like chromatic bass movement over a chord, thus changing the chord name confuse young readers alot. But wwith experience, you see see it for what it is. Basically one or two voicings with a lot of bass movement. Pretty simple if you know what to look for.
So alas in the end, we must agree to disagree. Because I still think that to teach 6/8, you present it as a fast 3/4, making it, well,...pretty much the same thing. :)
