# The Sound and the Furiant



## Hausmusik (May 13, 2012)

Anybody share my love of this wonderful Bohemian dance rhythm, with its syncopated combination of 2/4 and 3/4 under a 3/4 signature? My favorite composition in this style is the scherzo of Dvorak's Sixth symphony.






In fact the only examples I can think of come from Dvorak (the scherzo of the Piano Quintet and the Sextet come to mind), although Wikipedia cites some examples from Smetana.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

To my amateur ears, this sounds like a similar rhythm to the Bernstein song "America" from West Side Story. "Datdahdah Datdahah Dah-dah-dah." I was thinking it is called hemiola, but I could be confusing that.

Ah, wait. Here is Wikipedia image of the rhythm:









Not sure if that's the same or not.

I love this Dvorak piece! I had all but forgotten about it as I started getting farther away from loud crash bang orchestral music. Must be an age thing.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Weston said:


> To my amateur ears, this sounds like a similar rhythm to the Bernstein song "America" from West Side Story. "Datdahdah Datdahah Dah-dah-dah." I was thinking it is called hemiola, but I could be confusing that.
> Not sure if that's the same or not.


Peter Schikele calls "America" a hemiola. Another example he gave is the opening of Schumann's 3rd symphony. The seventh bar begins the hemiola.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

^Furiant is more like 6/8 alternating 1-2-1-2-1-2 and 1-2-3-1-2-3, if I'm not mistaken.


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

I adore furiant. My favorite is in Dvorak's Slavonic Dances





And yes, it's not 2/4 to 3/4, but rather regrouping within 3/4 across the bar line, which is hemiola.







In this video (also from Slavonic Dances) you can clearly see Sawallisch conducting in 3/4 during the whole first section which sounds as if it ought to be in 2


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## Norse (May 10, 2010)

Maybe this sort of thing inspired Brahms to write this rhythmically confusing waltz, where the first two bars of the theme is played as if it was 2/4 or 4/4.






Not the best performance (not even sure it's acoustic), but it was the only one with sheet music.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Crudblud said:


> ^Furiant is more like 6/8 alternating 1-2-1-2-1-2 and 1-2-3-1-2-3, if I'm not mistaken.


Hemiola is any rhythm with the shifting accent from three to two, the smaller valued pulse remaining the same.

As Ratio: 3:2 (or 2:3) the signature's denominator makes no difference, 3/2 6/8 3/4, the ratio and shift of accent being all.


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## Crudblud (Dec 29, 2011)

PetrB said:


> Hemiola is any rhythm with the shifting accent from three to two, the smaller valued pulse remaining the same.
> 
> As Ratio: 3:2 (or 2:3) the signature's denominator makes no difference, 3/2 6/8 3/4, the ratio and shift of accent being all.


Now I know.


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