Roger Mathew Grant
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- December 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780199367283
- eISBN:
- 9780199367306
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199367283.003.0004
- Subject:
- Music, Theory, Analysis, Composition
From its earliest formulations in writings on music, triple meter has held a special position. Conceptions of triple meter as the perfect mode of temporal division gave way during the sixteenth ...
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From its earliest formulations in writings on music, triple meter has held a special position. Conceptions of triple meter as the perfect mode of temporal division gave way during the sixteenth century to conceptions of triple meter grounded in a basic inequality, connected to the construction of the unequal tactus or battuta. While duple meters consisted of a lowering and raising of the hand that were equal in length, triple meters consisted of a lowering of the hand that was double the length of the following raise. An unequal meter, triple meter was similar in nature to the unbalanced meters in five or seven with which we are familiar today. This chapter revitalizes an unequal conceptualization of triple meter and brings this consideration to bear in analyses of Schein, Susato, Gervaise, Purcell, and Handel.Less
From its earliest formulations in writings on music, triple meter has held a special position. Conceptions of triple meter as the perfect mode of temporal division gave way during the sixteenth century to conceptions of triple meter grounded in a basic inequality, connected to the construction of the unequal tactus or battuta. While duple meters consisted of a lowering and raising of the hand that were equal in length, triple meters consisted of a lowering of the hand that was double the length of the following raise. An unequal meter, triple meter was similar in nature to the unbalanced meters in five or seven with which we are familiar today. This chapter revitalizes an unequal conceptualization of triple meter and brings this consideration to bear in analyses of Schein, Susato, Gervaise, Purcell, and Handel.
