To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
From: Bryant Christenson
Subject: Re: Cantique de noel: musicologists' answers to rhythm question
(long-ish)
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

>Dr. LaFond wrote:
>
>"I have not heard of the convention of the dotted-quarter understood to
>mirror the triplets. A composer would have to be insane to write dotted
>quarter-sixteenth when he could easily have written this in triplets.'


This is a very common practice today and many arrangements will add
that a dotted eighth sixteenth pattern is to be performed as a
quarter-eighth triplet. It is almost always the unspoken case in pop
music. It is simply done because it takes less time to write than a
triplet sign, etc.

However, I do agree that Adam lived in a time when this practice
would not have been the norm. it became prevelant in the early 1920s
with the popularity of jazz stylings. The players were not precise
enough to realize what it meant and so elided a bit. Many could not
read music and thus were recalling something they had heard. And,
many of you remember how frustrating it was to break the habit of
playing dotted eigth-sixteenths incorrectly. Nothing really wrong
with it. it is just a style thing. Best leave Adam's music as is.
Want a real nerve wracker: the intro to Beethoven's Hallelujah Chorus
from his Mount of Olives oratorio. In addition to being the great
overlooked Hallelujah Chorus, it has an intro that I have NEVER been
able to play and feel competent in doing so.

All my best to all over the holidays and new year.

Respectfully,

Bryant

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