{"id":352,"date":"2009-05-18T06:33:29","date_gmt":"2009-05-18T06:33:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp\/2009\/05\/all_feet\/"},"modified":"2020-07-13T01:03:14","modified_gmt":"2020-07-13T05:03:14","slug":"all_feet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/2009\/05\/all_feet.html","title":{"rendered":"All feet"},"content":{"rendered":"

The patterns of stress inform everything. More, less. Less, more. Our languages (our speech) inform our music, our thought, our designs, and concepts — our emotions? I am — iamb! In Western European music, the falling inflection predominates, strong, then weak. That’s the two-part poetic foot, the “trochee.” “Iambs” (weak – strong) are rarer in music and (?) in French, German, Italian (so rare as to need a marking — citt\u00e0). In these languages, rising inflections are rarer? — syncopations. (There are three-part and more-part feet too. And the length of syllables might be considered.)<\/p>\n

In music, we frequently associate falling inflection with pitch. A higher note followed by a lower note is often read and performed as: more and then less. More sound, more intensity for the higher pitch, less for the lower pitch. But, if the lower note is longer in duration than the first note, a shift in inflection is probably signified. A short high-note, followed by a longer lower-note is: weak – strong. (C.P.E. Bach tells us<\/a>, in case there was any doubt in your mind!)<\/p>\n

\"ondineAJ.jpg\"<\/span>In a master class, a student played the beginning of Maurice Ravel’s “Ondine” from Gaspard de la nuit<\/em>. There are poems by Aloysius Bertrand<\/a> with this title. Another student asked the master, “Is there a direct relationship between the poems and the music?” And the master answered, “It’s not specific, just atmosphere …”<\/p>\n

The melodic line begins (second system, in the left hand) with a descending interval, the second note has longer duration. The student was being coached to play the first note louder, with more stress. But, this is a case of “syncopation” — the longer duration of the second note gives it more stress, even though its pitch is lower. (The “slur” shows the whole line is bound together legato<\/em>.) And, if there was doubt about the emphasis pattern, Bertrand’s poem begins: “\u00c9coute, c’est moi!”<\/p>\n

\"OndineAJline1.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00c9coute,………………………………<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"OndineAJline2.jpg\"<\/span><\/p>\n

c’est moi<\/em>!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The patterns of stress inform everything. More, less. Less, more. Our languages (our speech) inform our music, our thought, our designs, and concepts — our emotions? I am — iamb! In Western European music, the falling inflection predominates, strong, then weak. That’s the two-part poetic foot, the “trochee.” “Iambs” (weak – strong) are rarer in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1556,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[491,485,489,486,67,453,488,487,452,375,492,484,490],"class_list":{"0":"post-352","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-falling-inflection","9":"tag-gaspard-de-la-nuit","10":"tag-iamb","11":"tag-inflection","12":"tag-master-class","13":"tag-musical-emphasis","14":"tag-musical-speech","15":"tag-phrase","16":"tag-phraseology","17":"tag-ravel","18":"tag-rising-inflection","19":"tag-seoul-national-university","20":"tag-trochee","21":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5246,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/352\/revisions\/5246"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/pianomorphosis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}