What's a Beat: How TwtrSymphony Looks at a Beat

By -

A continuation of the discussion from: Dealing with Irregular Beats in the Music of Chip Michael

Modern music moves fast, often too fast for the human to accurately count. The reason for this is we (composers) have taken subdivision to a new level. We are breaking down the events that happen in a given moment, subdivided it and attached events to each of those divisions. Brian Ferneyhough, Michael Finnissy and other composers of the "New Complexity" give musicians an inordinate amount of information to take at each moment. In order to accomplish the actual "beat" of their music is rather slow, eighth = 56 is fairly common.

My music takes a page from this book. However, rather than try and cram a lot of information into a single note space, I use the a variable beat with a consistent under pulse.

In the new piece for TwtrSymphony, The Hawk Goes Hunting (a working title) the opening page shifts between 9/8 and 13/8 meters. But don't count the measures in 9 or 13. Count them in two and three.



The first measure is divided into the strong beats (solid red lines), and the weak sub-beats (dotted pink line). The first beat has three eighth notes in the first half and two in the second, where the second beat has two eight notes in each sub-beat. The 13/8 bar is similarly divided, with the first beat sub-divided into three eight notes and two eight notes, and the other two beats sub-divided into two eighth notes in each half of the beat. Counting this (or conducting this), I would expect to see, "One, and, Two, and." Then "One, and, Two, and, Three, and." If the conductor were to try and wave his or her arms about counting each eighth note, their arms would fall off mid way through the piece and the musicians would have no idea where they are in the music. However, but sub-dividing the "actual" beats of the music into a constant steady pulse, while the beat changes length/duration, the pulse is ever present.



The key to counting a variable beat is knowing how it is sub-divided. This does put the expectation on the player to know how the beat sub-divisions shift measure to measure, particularly since 13/8 may be divided into three beats and sometimes four. However, the flow of the music has a more syncopated feel, which is something composer since way back to Machaut (14th century) have been incorporating into their music.

Comments

Janet said…
This really helps me to understand the essence of variable beat music. One question...how is the musician to know which subdivisions are intended by the composer?
April 2, 2012 at 9:47 PM
Chip Michael said…
Up to this point bar lines were considered to be the hallmark of where to find stresses and the associated strong/weak beats. With a variable pulse, I group notes according to the patterns, much like they would be grouped in a regular measure. If the stress is 3 + 2 (as in the beginning of the 9/8 bar) the eighth notes are grouped accordingly. These are followed by two sets of two (2+2) creating the next 'beat.'

In the 13/8 measure, the first 'beat' is the same as in the 9/8 measure, but then followed by two sets of four, signifying the following two 'beats.' I could (and probably should) put the final four eighth notes in the 9/8 measure together to signify a single beat (as in the 13/8 measure. However, I also feel it's possible to see the 9/8 measure in four as easily as two (3+2+2+2), so the eighth notes are separated in this grouping to allow conductors a chance to make their own choice.
April 2, 2012 at 10:55 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Role of Music in Opera

By -
There are numerous books on the topic, and every composer, librettist, director, singer and audience member has their opinion as to what role the music should play in an opera. In a play without music, the words ought to support the meaning behind a character's actions. However, in the case of action movies, often times the action is what tells the story and there aren't words, just images to forward the plot. We might hear music to accompany action, build tension, but the action tells the story. Musicals tend to speak until the emotion of the moment just "has" to break out in song - unless it's something like "Mama Mia" where the dialog is the rails we travel on between songs; the songs themselves, written before the concept of the musical, are the focus of the production, while the story is secondary. Operas are a different beast. The music provides emotion to the words spoken, but it also plays the role of ambience when there is only action. In ...
Read more

Episode 210b: Joyeuse le départ

By -
Image
Podcast:  Play in new window  |  Download Subscribe:  Apple Podcasts  |  Android  |  Google Play  |  Stitcher  |  TuneIn  |  RSS Provost Cunningham has Transmigrated, but to where! What is Dr Sage going to do with his body? And how can she bring home her friends, Abigail and Erasmus, without also bring home Cunningham? What are they going to say when they find the “skeleton” she’s hiding in her closet? Cast: Eddie Louise Clark  as Dr Sage Chip Clark  as Professor Savant Justin Bremer  as the Narrator Emily Riley Piatt  as Abigail Entwhistle, Calypso & Dean Stewart Written by  Eddie Louise Theme music by  Unwoman Sound Design by  Chip Michael
Read more

Teaching Composition – What are we trying to achieve

By -
In the process of learning composition I have spent time with a number of instructors who have encouraged me to write twelve-tone, pitch-class, electro-acoustic and other forms of experimental techniques. No matter how much I might understand and appreciate the work of other composers in the genres, these are not forms of music I resonate with. They are simply not forms of music I listen to and I struggle with the idea of writing them. However, in a Master Class by Libby Larsen she made the comment, “Learn them all, because all forms of music have something to offer.” This I very much agree. There are elements of each of the above mentioned forms (and others) that I do resonate with. Berg’s Violin Concerto is a beautiful twelve-tone work, although it is possible to look at numerous sections of the music with a “tonal” analysis. Another composer friend, Gary Bachlund commented that using these techniques can narrow the choices for how to compose a piece of work. If you look at ...
Read more