2 May
2022
2 May
'22
12:49 p.m.
Amy,
Thanks for the lesson about hemiolas.
Since your ears are far more musically educated than mine, perhaps you can say somethinng
informative about this rendition of Beaumont Rag by Mark O'Connor that I cited in an
earlier message:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJuXNiybth0
For the first 30 or 40 seconds, I find both the beat and the phrasing pretty clear. Then
he starts doing some things that I think wouldn't work well at a contra dance unless
there were some other band member(s) keeping the dancers on track, Then he goes back to
playing with clear beat and phrasing for a while, then off on another flight of fancy,
etc.
On any of those "flights of fancy" is he doing the "punchign the
hemiola" thing that you write about? Can you offer any technical insight into what
other things he's doing--and just why they may be confusing for dances though
enjoyable for listeners--at a level that would be accessible to us musical muggles out
here?
--Jim
On May 2, 2022, at 8:27 AM, Amy Cann via Contra
Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
...
I've been wondering during this whole thread if
their version involves
punching the heck out of the hemiola in the B part?
(hemiola: Italian for "I'm going to mess with your head by moving the
emPHAsis to a new syLAHble")
People who aren't paper-trained, don't flinch, ok?
You can do this visually.
Look at this version: http://www.folktunefinder.com/tunes/113330
and look **carefully** at the beginning of the sixth and seventh lines.
Look at the three heavy black horizontal "BEAMS" -- do you see how
they bind the notes into groups of four? That's the grouping we dance
to - we put our feet down on those "diggachucka, diggachucka"'s.
ONE-234 ONE -234. Our feet land on the ONEs.
Now look carefully at the blobby dark oval HEADS of the notes.
Do you see the four little slanty LOW-MEDIUM-HIGH, LOW-MEDIUM-HIGH bunches?
That's the hemiola.
For fiddlers, whacking that LOW note comes natural. The bow just
automatically stomps on it. ONE-23 ONE-23 ONE-23 ONE-23
So you end up with an internally conflicted
ONE-two-three-ONE two-three-ONE-two three-ONE-two-three.
which in playwriting is delicious. Internal conflicts are the spice of drama.
But in a dance?
IF the fiddlers whack the threes AND the rhythm section stays true and honest,
the bass/guitar/piano keep up a steady BOOM chuck BOOM chuck,
you have zesty syncopation on top of expected solidity and all is well.
BUT.
If the band decides to be all cool and EVERYbody hits the threes,
everyone jumps on the hemiola accents with both feet, the dancers will
start to fall over theirs.
There's an obscure tune called "Catharsis" that sometimes inspires
this same unfortunate circumstance, which the composer regrets.
<snip>