LO3- Know about simple and complex rhythms

 Metres

Time signatures: duple; triple; compound; complex eg 7/8.     

Rhythms: regular; dotted; syncopated; triplets; subdivisions eg 2+2+3 in 7/8 (give example of 7/8 from 'Joseph'- 'Stop You Robbers'

Time Signatures/ metres

There's a time signature for every piece of music which has a set rhythm, be it compound or simple time:

Simple duple time: 2/4 or 2/2






An example of a piece of music written in simple duple time.

Simple quadruple time: 4/4 time (meaning that there are 4 crotchets in every bar)


Compound duple time: 6/8 time (meaning that there are 6 quavers in every bar- this is similar to 3/4 time, just a bit quicker and accented differently!)

         Example: Leonard Bernstein's America'- uses not only 6/8 time but heavily accented 3/4 time aswell!

 (searched from Wikipedia)

Compound triple time: 9/8 (meaning that there are 9 quavers in every bar, it can be divided into 3 sections with an accent on the 1st, 4th and 7th beats of the bar)


Complex time- 5/8 or 7/8 time for example (meaning that there are 5 quavers(5/8) or 7 quavers (7/8) in each bar- its slightly harder to count!)

Simple Time Signatures

There are lots of types of simple time. There is:

• Simple duple= 2/4 or 2/2 (2 minims in  bar a of  4 or 2)
• Simple triple= 3/4, 3/2 or 3/8 (3 crotchets in a bar or a minim and a crotchet, or 3 quavers in a bar)
• Simple quadruple time= 4/4 (C) or 4/2 (one breve in a bar of 4/4 or either 4 minms or 2 breves in a bar of 4/2)

(see below for further reference)

Rhythms

Regular:

Regular rhythm basically refers to the rhythm that we are most used to. The rhythm applies to which time signature or metre you have, and from that we know which beats to accent therefore giving us a regular rhythm.For example if a piece was in 3/4, then we would be in 3/4 rhythm- which is regular.

Triplets: 

Consisting of mainly all triplets, beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' provides an excellent example of rhythm in triplets. The piece is written in simple duple time, 2/2. There are 4 groups of triplets in each bar, meaning that they triplets "fit into" 2 minims worth of time. Each tuplet here totals to the same time as a crotchet, and would take the same time if we only played 2 quavers.

Off-beat syncopation 

This is a type of rhythmic device which can be used to give character and add interest to a piece of music.

Before the piece would have had a straight rhythm with accents falling on the 1st and 3rd beats of the bar (1st is more probable)

Now the accents fall on an offbeat of a bar. For instance if the music is in 4/4 then an off-beat would either be an accent on the second or fourth beats of the bar.

(with pictures taken from Wikipedia)

Dotted Rhythm

These are rhythms consisting of dotted notes. A dotted note is a note making up its own value plus a half of that aswell (signalled by the added dot):

More often than not, in music these dotted rhythms are used in passages and are often written in quavers.



Dotted rhythm is very common in Jazz Swing, and for many scores the composer will not print dotted notes where they are meant to be instead they will write 'Swing' or a minim = a dotted crotchet and a quaver.

Subdivisions

Sub-divisions usually occur when a piece is written in complex time such as 7/8 for instance. Instead of the musician counting 7 beats per bar in their head, they divide the beats into sections. Take 7/8 time for example, some musicians would prefer to count 2+2+3 or 4+3 depending on how quick a tempo they play at.

Written in 7/8 this particular piece from 'Joseph' requires subdivisions as the tempo, agitato,
makes the piece too difficult to count in its original sign.
 

'The Man I Love' - by George and Ira Gershwin:

https://soundcloud.com/odance/gershwin-the-man-i-love-041112




The first 3 bars of Gershwin- 'The Man I Love'



Dotted rhythm features here prominently. Gershwin uses many rhythmical devices in a lot of his work, mostly due to his work being influenced by jazz blues which contains rather stressed notes and accents. Most bars in this work contain a dotted quaver's rest, a semi-quaver, a dotted quaver and then another semi-quaver.

Triplets are evident in the left hand section of the first three bars of this piece.  They are either a tuplet with a quavers' rest before (bars 1+3) or a full tuplet (bar 2). The ryhthm is interesting whilst the treble plays the triplets as the left hand must fit a quaver in between the 2nd and 3rd tuplet.



As the piece progresses, sextuplets and septuplets arrise.