Re: hang --"going backwards in time; " "insane spring

[Eyolf Østrem]

On 27.11.2007 (13:44), Trevor Bača wrote:
> I wish I knew enough about Medieval music (or Medieval music theory anyway)
> to know if the Medieval invetors of "duplum" and "triplum" and "perfectus"
> and "imperfectus" and the like ever touched on the topic ... they'd make a
> good source to steal from ...

Oh, they did, they did... Not the medieval guys, but their
early-renaissance followers, such as Franchino Gaffurio, who, as far as I
remember, is the one who does the most thorough presentation of all the
different alternatives:

http://www.chmtl.indiana.edu/tml/15th/GAFPM4_TEXT.html

The principle is an extension of the nomenclature of sesquialtera (3:2) and
sesquitertia (4:3) etc., and particularly the names with -partiens and
-particularis. As the complexities grow, so do the names: 30:7 is called
Quadruplasuperbipartiensseptimas... 

sesqui-:  numerator one higher than denominator
subsesqui-: denom. one higher than num.
superpartiens: num. contains den. plus a specified part of itself, e.g.
    supertripartiensquinta = 8:5, supersexcupartiensseptima=13:7, etc.
subsuperpartiens: same as the former, only upside down:
    supersexcupartiensseptima=7:13
etc. 

Charming system, but not very practical...
 
However ...

> (A good example is "prolation" ... which I *think* Ferneyhough borrows from
> "prolatio" ... though not sure ... and which makes a great cover term for
> tuplets and all forms of duration "scaling" in general.)

True -- it is basically the same word as "relation", which makes it a good
generic term which still -- while not in general use -- retains some
specificity. I'd go for "prolations" for all those odd meters.

(No, really, I'd go for writing simple tunes in 4/4 :)

Eyolf

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