Rhythms and time signatures

[Pulcinella]

There's a story I remember hearing a long time ago about the difficulties orchestras were (apocryphally) experiencing in performing Walton's "Portsmouth Point" overture, which (as I understand it) is written in sequences of bars of differing time signatures. So, as a result, Walton's friend, the composer Constant Lambert, "successfully" came up with a version of the same work written in 4/4 time throughout! Having heard the two versions side-by-side - I think it may well have been on a COTW that twinned Lambert and Rawsthorne - I have to say that there is a perceptible difference in feeling between the two versions - to the detriment of the original in the form of the revision!

Is it also the case that someone came up with a similar idea for "The Rite of Spring"?

Yes: the composer!


According to Eric Walter White:

The opening bars of the Sacrificial Dance were originally
3/16 5/16 3/16 4/16 5/16 3/16 4/16
Some years later they were changed to
3/16 2/16 3/16 3/16 2/8 2/16 3/16 3/16 2/8

White then goes on to say:

In the 1943 revision, the note values were augmented for greater ease of reading, and certain bars were changed to prevent the barring from coinciding with the phrasing:
3/8 3/8 2/8 3/8 2/4 3/8 2/8 3/8 2/4

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes: the composer!


According to Eric Walter White:

The opening bars of the Sacrificial Dance were originally
3/16 5/16 3/16 4/16 5/16 3/16 4/16
Some years later they were changed to
3/16 2/16 3/16 3/16 2/8 2/16 3/16 3/16 2/8

White then goes on to say:

In the 1943 revision, the note values were augmented for greater ease of reading, and certain bars were changed to prevent the barring from coinciding with the phrasing:
3/8 3/8 2/8 3/8 2/4 3/8 2/8 3/8 2/4

Thanks for that, Pulc. Interesting that the decision was to prevent coinciding. I need to mull over the implications of that.

[Pulcinella]

Thanks for that, Pulc. Interesting that the decision was to prevent coinciding. I need to mull over the implications of that.

I wasn't too sure what that meant!

Presumably that he didn't want an accent in some places where naturally the first beat of a bar might lead you to assume that there would be one?

White goes further:

Reduced to its simplest statement the metre of this passage is
3 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 or
3 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 2

Does that help?

[Serial_Apologist]

I wasn't too sure what that meant!

Presumably that he didn't want an accent in some places where naturally the first beat of a bar might lead you to assume that there would be one?

White goes further:

Reduced to its simplest statement the metre of this passage is
3 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 2 or
3 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 2

Does that help?

P...............ossibly