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Topic: Need help dechipher notes (Read 7085 times) previous topic - next topic

Need help dechipher notes

Hi

My choir is rehersing a piece with hand written notes, and there is one passage that we just can't figure out (see attached file). The rest is written in 4/4 but this bar has 6 half notes in it, and a weird notation for something that looks like triplets, but uses a "2" instead of a "3". Does anyone in this forum have a clue what this notation means?

Best regards, Jonas

Re: Need help dechipher notes

Reply #1 –
My guess is to treat it as one measure of 6/2, ignore the 2 brackets, and tripletize the objects in the 3 bracket.
Since 1998

Re: Need help dechipher notes

Reply #2 –
My guess is that measure has an unusual time sig of 17/4 (???  has been known)

The the rest and the two quarters are a triplet. The remaining notes are all duplets (two notes in the time of three).
NoteWorthy can't visualise duplets at the moment but it can play it without showing the correct notes. (It can be worked around)
It would be played like the attachment.
Rich.

Re: Need help dechipher notes

Reply #3 –
Quote from: Warren Porter –
My guess is to treat it as one measure of 6/2, ignore the 2 brackets, and tripletize the objects in the 3 bracket.
I agree. Without more context, tempo is anyone's guess. I don't see it resolved into anything like 4/4 (or 17/4 - that's too literal!)
Registered user since 1996

Re: Need help dechipher notes

Reply #4 –
I agree with Warren and Rick. It's actually common practice to bracket duplets in this manner when they follow a triplet in the same measure (think of it as "cancelling" the triplet.). Usually only the first one after the triplet is explicitly indicated, but if this passage follows a long series of triplets the arranger (or composer) might have found it wise to bracket all of them.
 

Re: Need help dechipher notes

Reply #6 –
Ever since I first encountered a triplet, I'm wondering why there's a '3' indicated. In my mathematically (de-)formed mind it should be a '2'.
The '3' is just saying there are 3 notes, so that's no extra information. The '2' should indicate that they are to be played (sung in my case) in the time of 2 similar notes.
I never encountered a quintuplet are a septuplet (?), but when I do, how can I tell in what tempo they are to be sung ?
    
Always look on the bright side of life!

Re: Need help dechipher notes

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Opagust –
Ever since I first encountered a triplet, I'm wondering why there's a '3' indicated. In my mathematically (de-)formed mind it should be a '2'.
The '3' is just saying there are 3 notes, so that's no extra information. The '2' should indicate that they are to be played (sung in my case) in the time of 2 similar notes.
    

The 3 is shorthand for "3 in the time of 2." "2 in the time of 2" indicates standard durations for the notes. The extra information isn't how many notes there are under the bracket, it's how many notes to play in one beat.

Quote from: Opagust –
I never encountered a quintuplet are a septuplet (?), but when I do, how can I tell in what tempo they are to be sung ?
     

Generally, a 'tuplet is played in the time of the next shortest even division using the same notes. So (for instance) in duple time (2/4, 4/4, etc.), a quintuplet of 16ths would be 5 16ths in the time of 4; in triple time (6/8, 9/8, etc.), it would be 5 16ths in the time of three. Occasionally, you'll run across a 'tuplet that is played in the time of the next longest even division; for example, 5 8ths in the time of 6 in 6/8 time. It's easy to tell the difference, though; just count the beats in the rest of the measure. In the case of an 8th-note quintuplet in 6/8, if the measure also includes a dotted 8th (or three 8th notes, or any other combination that adds up to three 8th notes), then the quintuplet is 5 in the time of 3; if the quintuplet takes up the whole measure, then it's 5 in the time of 6.

Gee, that's clear as mud....;-)

Re: Need help dechipher notes

Reply #8 –
Quote from: William Ashworth –
It's easy to tell the difference, though; just count the beats in the rest of the measure.
Or look above or below in the system for a non-tuplet ...
Registered user since 1996

Re: Need help dechipher notes

Reply #9 –
Quote from: Rick G. –
Or look above or below in the system for a non-tuplet ...

Oh, too simple....;-)

Anyway, the important thing to convey is that the beat stays constant. A tuplet is an adjustment in the way the beat is divided (or, in some cases, the way two or three beats are divided), not an adjustment of the beat. So the tempo (the number of beats per minute) stays the same. The durations of the notes change within the tempo.

Re: Need help dechipher notes

Reply #10 –
Quote from: Opagust –
I never encountered a quintuplet or a septuplet (?), but when I do, how can I tell in what tempo they are to be sung ?     
To follow up on William's post, check out this User Tip.  To notate a quintuplet or pentuplet, increase the tempo by a factor of 5/4 and put a text 5 over the middle note.  The fun?!? is changing other parts not playing the tuplet so they sound and look the same.

Assignment mind blowing completed!
Since 1998