Hemiola versus syncopation?

[BestStudentViolins.com]

If you have a work which is in 3/4, pretty much *1* 2 3, etc. with a
primary accent always on the first beat, and then in some passages you
have the measure divided up into three sets of 1/8th notes in this
fashion:

*1* & 2 -- *&* 3 &

such that the accent in these passages falls on the 1 and the and of 2

Is this hemiola or syncopation?

My understanding is that syncopation occurs when the accent falls in
an unexpected place, and that hemiola is 2 against 3.

This is a simple work and the accompanying line mirrors the shape of
the melodic line, so is not an issue.

Your thoughts?

Connie

[Steinar Børmer]

BestStudentViolins.com wrote:

| If you have a work which is in 3/4, pretty much *1* 2 3, etc. with a
| primary accent always on the first beat, and then in some passages you
| have the measure divided up into three sets of 1/8th notes in this
| fashion:
|
| *1* & 2 -- *&* 3 &
|
| such that the accent in these passages falls on the 1 and the and of 2
|
| Is this hemiola or syncopation?

Certainly not a hemiola! A hemiola is more like three (bars) against
two, where two bars in 3/4 get three heavy beats; (bar 1) beat 1 and 3
--- (bar 2) beat 2. Like this:

*1* - 2 - *3* | 1 - *2* - 3

It usually sounds like three bars of 2/4 in a 3/4 movement.

| My understanding is that syncopation occurs when the accent falls in
| an unexpected place [...]

Yes, that's closer.

See these pages for a good explanation:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemiola
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncopation

[Arthur Ness]

What you describe is sesquialtera (3/4 becoming 6/8), not hemiola. And
hemiola is not
sycopation, it is change of meter made through the notation. Two measures
of, say, 3/4 are played as a measure of 3/2, often in baroque music at the
approach to a cadence as a kind of written out ritard:

1_2_3_| 1_2_3_ | becomes
1_&_2_| &_3_&_ |

Usually they are not played against one another, but sometimes
"simulataneous" hemiola appears when one voice has, say, 6/8 and the other
3/4. Josquin is fond of this kind of cross rhythm. I still would not call
it syncopation. It's a polymeter.

============================

Post by BestStudentViolins.com
If you have a work which is in 3/4, pretty much *1* 2 3, etc. with a
primary accent always on the first beat, and then in some passages you
have the measure divided up into three sets of 1/8th notes in this
*1* & 2 -- *&* 3 &
such that the accent in these passages falls on the 1 and the and of 2
Is this hemiola or syncopation?
My understanding is that syncopation occurs when the accent falls in
an unexpected place, and that hemiola is 2 against 3.
This is a simple work and the accompanying line mirrors the shape of
the melodic line, so is not an issue.
Your thoughts?
Connie

...

[j***@comcast.net]

Post by Arthur Ness
What you describe is sesquialtera (3/4 becoming 6/8), not hemiola. And
hemiola is not
sycopation, it is change of meter made through the notation. Two measures
of, say, 3/4 are played as a measure of 3/2, often in baroque music at the
1_2_3_| 1_2_3_ | becomes
1_&_2_| &_3_&_ |
Usually they are not played against one another, but sometimes
"simulataneous" hemiola appears when one voice has, say, 6/8 and the other
3/4. Josquin is fond of this kind of cross rhythm. I still would not call
it syncopation. It's a polymeter.

...

Well, polymeter today usually means two or more different meters
notated simultaneously, though the OED does list an earlier nonce-
usage describing "The succession of different metrical patterns in
16th-cent. vocal music." Since hemiola does represent a shift in the
usual metrical positions of accent, it is ordinarily regarded as a
type of syncopation, albeit of a very special sort.

--
Jerry Kohl
"L�gp�rn�s haj�m tele van angoln�kkal."

[Alain Naigeon]

Post by Arthur Ness
What you describe is sesquialtera (3/4 becoming 6/8), not hemiola. And
hemiola is not
sycopation, it is change of meter made through the notation. Two measures
of, say, 3/4 are played as a measure of 3/2, often in baroque music at the
1_2_3_| 1_2_3_ | becomes
1_&_2_| &_3_&_ |
Usually they are not played against one another, but sometimes
"simulataneous" hemiola appears when one voice has, say, 6/8 and the other
3/4. Josquin is fond of this kind of cross rhythm. I still would not call
it syncopation. It's a polymeter.

...

Well, polymeter today usually means two or more different meters
notated simultaneously, though the OED does list an earlier nonce-
usage describing "The succession of different metrical patterns in
16th-cent. vocal music."

On saturday evening I've attended a concert by Mala punica (Memelsdorff),
playing Ars subtilior (1380-1400), and we've listened to a lot of polymeter
effects ;-) Including those in Caserta's "Amour m'as le cueur mis...", and
also "Dame zentil" !

[Margo Schulter]

Post by Alain Naigeon
On saturday evening I've attended a concert by Mala punica
(Memelsdorff), playing Ars subtilior (1380-1400), and we've
listened to a lot of polymeter effects ;-) Including those
in Caserta's "Amour m'as le cueur mis...", and also "Dame
zentil" ! >

Hello, Alain.

Please let me agree: if people mention "polymeter," the late
14th century might be one of my first associations. The
specific figure of hemiola is something I associate with
this century, althoug, of course, it occurs later too.

What I especially think of is this kind of cadence:

1 2 3 4 5 6 | 1...
E D D C# D
B A G# A
G F E D

where the lower voices are moving in 3/4 and the highest
in 6/8, if we take the minim to be transcribed as an
eighth note or quaver.

Anyway, those pieces are great examples, not to mention
Solage and Ciconia, among others.

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter
***@calweb.com

[RT]

Hemiola [hemiolia]
(from Gk. hemilios: ‘the whole and a half’; Lat. sesquialtera; It.:
emiolia).

The ratio 3:2. The term was first applied to music in connection with the
theory of pitch: when the string of the monochord was divided in this ratio
the two lengths sounded the interval of a 5th. From the 15th century, it was
used to signify the substitution of three imperfect notes for two perfect
ones in tempus perfectum (mensuration with three semibreves to the breve) or
prolatio maior (three minims to the semibreve). Such substitutions, which
were usually notated using coloration, were widely used in 15th-century
music. They were particularly prevalent in the English carol repertory,
which was described by Bukofzer as ‘hemiola music pure and simple’ (ex.1).



By extension, ‘hemiola’ in the modern metrical system denotes the
articulation of two units of triple metre as if they were notated as three
units of duple metre: in ex.2, from Act 4 of Lully’s Le bourgeois
gentilhomme (1670), the first bar contains two triple units, and the second
has three duple units. This is a common feature of Baroque music, especially
of the French courante, and is used for giving rhythmic variety to dances
and helping to effect an allargando at the end of a longer movement; Handel
made much use of it. In the 19th century it was used by Schumann and often
by Brahms, and was an important feature of the Viennese waltz. Hemiola is a
distinguishing feature of such folkdances as the Andalusian polo and the
Central American huapango, rhythmic characteristics of which were
incorporated by Bernstein into ‘America’ from West Side Story (ex.3).





BIBLIOGRAPHY
M.F. Bukofzer: Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Music (New York, 1950),
165

W. Tell: ‘Die Hemiole bei Bach’, BJb, xxxix (1951–2), 47–53

K.P. Bernet Kempers: ‘Hemiolenrhythmik bei Mozart’, Festschrift Helmut
Osthoff, ed. L. Hoffmann-Erbrecht and H. Hucke (Tutzing, 1961), 155–61

M.B. Collins: ‘The Performance of Sesquialtera and Hemiolia in the 16th
Century’, JAMS, xvii (1964), 5–28

C. Willner: ‘The Two-Length Bar Revisited: Händel and the Hemiola’,
Göttinger Händel-Beiträge, iv (1991), 208–31

H. Cinnamon: ‘New Observations on Voice Leading, Hemiola, and their Roles in
Tonal and Rhythmic Structures in Chopin’s Prelude in B minor, op.28, no.6’,
Intégral, vi (1992), 66–106

V. Corrigan: ‘Hemiola in the Eighteenth Century’, Johann Sebastian: a
Tercentenary Celebration, ed. S.L. Benstock (Westport, CT, 1992), 23–32

Post by Margo Schulter

Post by Alain Naigeon
On saturday evening I've attended a concert by Mala punica
(Memelsdorff), playing Ars subtilior (1380-1400), and we've
listened to a lot of polymeter effects ;-) Including those
in Caserta's "Amour m'as le cueur mis...", and also "Dame
zentil" ! >

Hello, Alain.
Please let me agree: if people mention "polymeter," the late
14th century might be one of my first associations. The
specific figure of hemiola is something I associate with
this century, althoug, of course, it occurs later too.
1 2 3 4 5 6 | 1...
E D D C# D
B A G# A
G F E D
where the lower voices are moving in 3/4 and the highest
in 6/8, if we take the minim to be transcribed as an
eighth note or quaver.
Anyway, those pieces are great examples, not to mention
Solage and Ciconia, among others.
Most appreciatively,
Margo Schulter

...

[Alain Naigeon]

Post by Margo Schulter
Please let me agree: if people mention "polymeter," the late
14th century might be one of my first associations. The
specific figure of hemiola is something I associate with
this century, althoug, of course, it occurs later too.
1 2 3 4 5 6 | 1...
E D D C# D
B A G# A
G F E D
where the lower voices are moving in 3/4 and the highest
in 6/8, if we take the minim to be transcribed as an
eighth note or quaver.

Thank you once again for this example, Margo!

[Roland Hutchinson]

Have we agreed yet that "hemiola" and "sesquialtera" are basically two
names, respectively from Greek and Latin, for the same thing, namely the
ratio 3:2 ?

[John Howell]

Post by Roland Hutchinson
Have we agreed yet that "hemiola" and "sesquialtera" are basically two
names, respectively from Greek and Latin, for the same thing, namely the
ratio 3:2 ?

Actually, no. At least not in the context of earlier music, although
for baroque music they might be so defined. In mensural notation,
sans barlines, sesquialtera is a change in proportion in, yes, of
course, a ratio of 2:3, and affects an entire section of music, not
just a couple of measures or perfections. Hemiola is a shift in
emphasis within an established meter, with or without bar lines, and
seems to me to have grown out of chant practice in which "free"
rhythm (text rhythm rather than established meter) is actually
groupings of two, three, or four notes based on the text which they
set. Two entirely different things. And of course hemiolas are not
only in the music but in the dance steps and choreographies found in
the late 16th-early 17th century dance manuals.

Yes, they both deal with 3:2 proportions. But no, they are quite
different in practice.

John

[j***@comcast.net]

Post by John Howell

Post by Roland Hutchinson
Have we agreed yet that "hemiola" and "sesquialtera" are basically two
names, respectively from Greek and Latin, for the same thing, namely the
ratio 3:2 ?

Actually, no. At least not in the context of earlier music, although
for baroque music they might be so defined. In mensural notation,
sans barlines, sesquialtera is a change in proportion in, yes, of
course, a ratio of 2:3, and affects an entire section of music, not
just a couple of measures or perfections. Hemiola is a shift in
emphasis within an established meter, with or without bar lines, and
seems to me to have grown out of chant practice in which "free"
rhythm (text rhythm rather than established meter) is actually
groupings of two, three, or four notes based on the text which they
set. Two entirely different things. And of course hemiolas are not
only in the music but in the dance steps and choreographies found in
the late 16th-early 17th century dance manuals.
Yes, they both deal with 3:2 proportions. But no, they are quite
different in practice.

...

I think Roland was right in the first place, and more especially for
earlier practice. Morley equates hemiola to tripla (rather than
sesquialtera, though it comes to the same thing) in his Plaine and
Easie Introduction, complaining that it is "That proportion which the
musitions falselie termed Hemiola, when in deede it is nothing else
but a round Tripla." The OED gives an etymology from the Greek
"hemiol�a", feminine of "hemi�lios", with the meaning "in the ratio of
one and a half to one", and cite two 17th-century sources using the
term to refer to the pitch interval of the perfect fifth, "so called
because produced by shortening a string to two-thirds of its length."

I agree, however, that in *later* practice (e.g., today) the meanings
diverge, and hemiola as a rhythmic device takes on that sense of
syncopation (as opposed to mere triplet rhythm) that the OP asked
about.

--
Jerry Kohl
"Mea navicula pendens anguillarum plena est."

[Greg Lindahl]

Post by John Howell
And of course hemiolas are not
only in the music but in the dance steps and choreographies found in
the late 16th-early 17th century dance manuals.

They are? I can't think of a single 16th century example, except for a
few obscure galliard variations. Tons of galliard music with hemiolas,
but almost all of the steps are in 6, not grouped in 2 or 3 parts.

-- greg

[John Howell]

Post by Greg Lindahl

Post by John Howell
And of course hemiolas are not
only in the music but in the dance steps and choreographies found in
the late 16th-early 17th century dance manuals.

They are? I can't think of a single 16th century example, except for a
few obscure galliard variations. Tons of galliard music with hemiolas,
but almost all of the steps are in 6, not grouped in 2 or 3 parts.

Well, sure, hemiolas would have to be in triple time, and I was
thinking about galliard variations in Negri and Caroso, who aren't
exactly obscure. I can't recall whether Arbeau went into that much
detail. Julia's film on Renaissance Dance certainly demonstrates
some.

John

[Roland Hutchinson]

Post by John Howell

Post by Greg Lindahl

Post by John Howell
And of course hemiolas are not
only in the music but in the dance steps and choreographies found in
the late 16th-early 17th century dance manuals.

They are? I can't think of a single 16th century example, except for a
few obscure galliard variations. Tons of galliard music with hemiolas,
but almost all of the steps are in 6, not grouped in 2 or 3 parts.

Well, sure, hemiolas would have to be in triple time, and I was
thinking about galliard variations in Negri and Caroso, who aren't
exactly obscure. I can't recall whether Arbeau went into that much
detail. Julia's film on Renaissance Dance certainly demonstrates
some.

...

Consider the steps of the minuet.

[Arthur Ness]

Post by Roland Hutchinson

Post by John Howell

Post by Greg Lindahl

Post by John Howell
And of course hemiolas are not
only in the music but in the dance steps and choreographies found in
the late 16th-early 17th century dance manuals.

They are? I can't think of a single 16th century example, except for a
few obscure galliard variations. Tons of galliard music with hemiolas,
but almost all of the steps are in 6, not grouped in 2 or 3 parts.

Well, sure, hemiolas would have to be in triple time, and I was
thinking about galliard variations in Negri and Caroso, who aren't
exactly obscure. I can't recall whether Arbeau went into that much
detail. Julia's film on Renaissance Dance certainly demonstrates
some.

Consider the steps of the minuet.
--
Roland Hutchinson Will play viola da gamba for food.
NB mail to my.spamtrap [at] verizon.net is heavily filtered to
remove spam. If your message looks like spam I may not see it.

...

An example is the ("baroque") Minuet for Mozart's G minor Symphony (#40).

L|R 2 L|1 R 3| 1

[Margo Schulter]

Post by Roland Hutchinson
Have we agreed yet that "hemiola" and "sesquialtera" are basically two
names, respectively from Greek and Latin, for the same thing, namely the
ratio 3:2 ?

Hi, Roland.

If we're speaking about proportions in the abstract, I agree indeed;
for example, I often use the term sesquialtera simply to mean "the ratio
of a pure 3:2 fifth," and it's used that way in lots of the literature.

The nuances of what the two terms might imply in a specifically rhythmic
context might get more complicated, as this thread explores; but I'd take
either term in itself to mean precisely a 3:2 ratio, with the Latin
translating more or less "and again a half."

Most appreciatively,

Margo Schulter
***@calweb.com