2.15 Mixed meters and other conducting problems

Mixed meters and other conducting problems

The beauty of music is that it often does the unexpected. A composer may alter the accent of a particular passage to achieve interest. In the first example below from Psalm 90 the composer uses a chant-like effect that alters the normal rhythm. The conducting gestures may also change for that passage. The nexst example shows different ordering of beats in the measures requiring a different set of conducting gestures.

Often a composer indicates the rhythmic ordering of the measure in the manner shown in figure 5 and 6 below. (Alleluia of Hodie Christus Natus Est.) This is an aid to the conductor's score study since he knows exactly what rhythmic relationships the composer intended; there is no room for speculation.

The passage should be conducted with three gestures in the 8/ 8 measure and two gestures in the 4/8 measure. Any attempt to conduct all of the eight beats at this tempo would be impossible and ridiculous.

The conductor will find that a modified three pattern (with an eighth note robbed from the second beat) will be clear and most comfortable. This, alternated with the two pattern, will best meet the musical demands of the passage.

HODIE CHRISTUS NATUS EST, by Gordon Lamb,Copyright 1971 (Renewed) by G. Shirmer, Inc. (ASCAP), International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved,Reprinted by Permission

Figure 7 illustrates the alternation of 4/4, 3/4, 6/8, and 7/8, where the alternation is not indicated by a time signature. In this instance, the composer did not indicate a time signature even at the beginning of the work. This type of alternation is not unusual in twentieth-century or contemporary repertoire even when a time signature is given.

This passage should be conducted in four, three, two, and a modified three. The composer has indicated his preference of 3/4 in the second measure by using a quarter tied to a dotted quarter, followed by the eighth note. Had he intended the measure (even though two and one-half beats of it are taken up with a held note) to be interpreted in 6/8 he would have notated it by using a dotted quarter tied to a quarter before the eighth note. This grouping would denote a division of the six eighth notes into two groups rather than into three. The tempo (composer's suggestion, quarter note = 96) will not allow a conductor to beat six beats in the third measure, or seven beats in the fourth measure. A conductor should use a two pattern in measure three and a modified three pattern in measure four. The second beat of the three pattern must be extended to incorporate the extra eighth note. The rebound will go higher and further to the right than usual for a three pattern.

Another Halsey Stevens piece, The Way of Jehovah is an excellent example of changing meters and shifting pulses (see figures 8-11.