Re: \time 9/8 (3/4)

[Hans Åberg]

> On 29 Jul 2022, at 13:30, Kieren MacMillan <kieren@kierenmacmillan.info> 
> wrote:
> 
> Hi Carl,
> 
>> Just curious, because I know precious little about polymetry.
>> Does 9/8 (3/4) mean anything different from (3 + 3 + 3)/8 ?
> 
> Yes: the parenthetical notation is usually an instruction to alternate time 
> signatures, not simply a clarification of intention. For example, in “West 
> Side Story”, Bernstein uses 6/8 (3/4) to indicate that alternate bars should 
> be felt/conducted as 6/8 then 3/4 then 6/8 then 3/4…

Hindemith, "Training…", indicates that 6/8 is always bipartite, so the 3/4 is a 
metric shift in this music piece.

> Hope that helps!
> Kieren.
> 
> p.s.
> 
>> To my novice eye, both mean that it's 9/8 with three primary beats per 
>> measure.  Also to my novice eye, it seems that 9/8 can/t have a 3/4 
>> alternate time signature; perhaps a (3/4.) , but not a (3/4).
> 
> Perhaps the intention is to save the notational ink of changing between 
> triple and duple feel? So there continue to be three primary beats per 
> measure, but alternating between “triplets“ and “straight eighths” without 
> having to add tuplet numbers?

By contrast, 9/8 is tripartite, just as 3/4, so I do not see any obvious 
difference here.

These metric refers to CPP (common practise period) music. In Bulgarian music, 
I found an example of 6/8, 6 = 2+2+2 contrasted against a 7/8, perhaps a 3+2+2.

In Irish music, jigs are written in 6/8 and slip jigs in 9/8. The Bulgarian 
pravo horo, called zonaradikos in Greece, has a similar triple rhythms as 6/8, 
but is invariably written in 2/4 in Bulgaria, perhaps because performances have 
something similar to notes inégales (swinged notes, as in jazz) on the dotted 
notes.