I'm pretty sure the meter alternation has a name, and that I've run across the name, but I cannot recall it even if I'm right. Either that, or this piece is really unusual for the period and I'm only imagining that the technique has a name because I've been stuffing my head full of terms and concepts like "imperfect tempus" and "perfect prolation" for the past few weeks.
I want to describe this as alternating between tempus imperfectum, prolatio major and tempus perfectum, prolatio minor, but I'm not sure whether I'm applying the right century's mensural terminology. I'm getting the concepts but the timeline is all a jumble in my head. BTW, the original notation is online, but I'm having trouble tracking down exactly which of a few similar-looking notations it's in, and the scan is kind of blurry.
When I was typing the tune in, I didn't recognize the title ... but then when I played it I realized I'd heard it before on some CD. It's a really bouncy little tune, even at a singable speed, isn't it? It's also my current earworm.
Still don't know whether it has a name, but fidhle pointed out that it shows up in Spanish music, and in "America" from West Side Story. So if it does have a name, it's probably something in Spanish.
The collection the tune is from is apparently of Castilian origin, written in Galician-Portugese.
maugorn gives it a name, below. Hemiola. Wikipedia says he's technically wrong even though a lot of other people make the same mistake. Two different editions of Webster's say he's right. I think maugorn and Webster are right.
Now to go try to understand more clearly when to say 'hemiola' and when to say 'sesquialtera' ... (it's being one of those educational days).
maugorn's right, and you are mistaken that Wikipedia says otherwise. Wikipedia: "Later, from around the 15th century, the word came to mean the use of three breves in a bar when the prevailing metrical scheme had two dotted breves in each bar."
When I'm being really persnicketty, I differentiate between implicit and explicit hemiolas, the latter being where there is a second line (or more lines!) of music keeping the predominant rhythm in explicit counterpoint with the one in the hemiola, the former being as per "Como Poden".
Five bucks says that the original source notates those measures explicitly as hemiolas, i.e. in red ink where the measure is in three.
Whoops. Read in haste right past the bit about shift in meaning.
I couldn't find the tune in the web-accessible scans of the 'T' manuscript. In the scans of the 'E' manuscript all the notes are black ... but the illuminated letters look kinda funny, so I'm guessing that these are black and white scans of more colourful pages. I'd be very interested in seeing better images.
(no subject)
That's a neat tune-- I don't think I've played it before.
Does the alternating 3/4 and 6/8 rhythm have a name?
(no subject)
I want to describe this as alternating between tempus imperfectum, prolatio major and tempus perfectum, prolatio minor, but I'm not sure whether I'm applying the right century's mensural terminology. I'm getting the concepts but the timeline is all a jumble in my head. BTW, the original notation is online, but I'm having trouble tracking down exactly which of a few similar-looking notations it's in, and the scan is kind of blurry.
When I was typing the tune in, I didn't recognize the title ... but then when I played it I realized I'd heard it before on some CD. It's a really bouncy little tune, even at a singable speed, isn't it? It's also my current earworm.
(no subject)
The collection the tune is from is apparently of Castilian origin, written in Galician-Portugese.
Nomenclature
Now to go try to understand more clearly when to say 'hemiola' and when to say 'sesquialtera' ... (it's being one of those educational days).
Re: Nomenclature
When I'm being really persnicketty, I differentiate between implicit and explicit hemiolas, the latter being where there is a second line (or more lines!) of music keeping the predominant rhythm in explicit counterpoint with the one in the hemiola, the former being as per "Como Poden".
Five bucks says that the original source notates those measures explicitly as hemiolas, i.e. in red ink where the measure is in three.
Re: Nomenclature
I couldn't find the tune in the web-accessible scans of the 'T' manuscript.
In the scans of the 'E' manuscript all the notes are black ... but the illuminated letters look kinda funny, so I'm guessing that these are black and white scans of more colourful pages. I'd be very interested in seeing better images.