# Hemiola



## Fdoublesharp (Oct 19, 2011)

Hi All,

Hope this is the right forum as I couldn't find one that said just "theory." This has been a burning question for such a long time and i've looked at resources and asked questions but I'm still struggling.

I understand the definition on Wiki, but if it helps, the example I'm looking at is from Trinity Guildhall Theory of Music grade 6. If anyone has worked through this book it'd be useful.

The time signature is 6/4, and there is two clefs, treble and bass. As an exercise, it tells you to mark the main beats to show where they change to create a hemiola effect. i just can't see, or more importantly "feel" it.

I really want to get this down, cuz I don't want to move on until I've sussed this topic.

Thank you so much.


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## Delicious Manager (Jul 16, 2008)

Firstly, hemiola is nothing to do with clefs; it is a purely rhythmic device. In 6/4 is is not uncommon to have two primary beats in a bar/measure, each comprising three subdivisions. A 'hemiola' temporarily changes this pulse in to three beats of two subdivisions. An excellent example of this is America from West Side Story. Most of the number is in a clear 6/8 time (two dotted crotchet/quarter-note pulses with three fast subdivisions within them). But on the word 'Am-ER-I-CA', there is a hemiola - three beats ('er-i-ca') instead of three.


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## UberB (Apr 16, 2011)

Hemiola = a device that gives the impression that you have temporarily switched meter.

eg in the first movement of Beethoven's Eroica symphony, he constantly writes syncopations on every other note to give the impression of two beats/bar instead of three.


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## Fdoublesharp (Oct 19, 2011)

Delicious Manager said:


> But on the word 'Am-ER-I-CA', there is a hemiola - three beats ('er-i-ca') instead of *two*.


Would what you're describing be seen as a 3:2 polyrhythm (cross rhythm)?


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## Rasa (Apr 23, 2009)

That's not what he's describing.


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## Fdoublesharp (Oct 19, 2011)

Rasa said:


> That's not what he's describing.


Sorry, see edit.


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## Meaghan (Jul 31, 2010)

Fdoublesharp said:


> Would what you're describing be seen as a 3:2 polyrhythm (cross rhythm)?


I think you are thinking of when, for example, you are playing piano and have 8th note triplets in one hand at the same time as regular 8th notes in the other hand. Delicious Manager is talking about a song in 6/8 that alternates every other measure between having the emphasis on the first and fourth 8th notes of the measure and having in on the first, third, and fifth 8th notes of the measure--alternating between a two-feel and a three-feel, if that makes sense. It would be a good idea to listen to this song and see if you can hear what we mean.

Here is an example from the first movement of Beethoven's 3rd symphony. You can click it to see a bigger version. Unfortunately, it doesn't have measure numbers, but if you listen and follow along with a score (you can find one at imslp.org), you should be able to find the spot. Where there is a series of accented half notes, and quarter notes tied across the barlines, that is hemiola. The movement is in 3/4, but the rhythm and accents in this spot obscure the actual meter and create a temporary feeling of being in 2/4.


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## Fdoublesharp (Oct 19, 2011)

Thank you very much. I listened to both pieces and I can here the hemiola. I understand the device and how it works, and yes i got confused with polyrhythm.

If I post a pic of the exercise from the book could you guys help at all? It's not so much the concept that i don't understand, it's trying to spot it within the score that I struggle with. With this one in particular.


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## Fdoublesharp (Oct 19, 2011)

Here we go. Please help me try to identify them. I want to carry on studying classical music, but don't wnat to carry on through the book until I've got yhis topic sorted. thanks!

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/827/cimg0177i.jpg/


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

Surely bar 3 is 3 groups of 4 quavers, and the other bars are 2 groups of 6 quavers.

So, counting the quavers, bars 1 and 2 go: 1-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6, whereas bar 3 goes 1-2-3-4-1-(2)-3-4-1-(2)-3-4.

Note that bar 2 RH is two groups of six quavers, each group tied by a beam. If bar 3 RH were intended to be read similarly as effectively (6+6)/8, the engraver should have created one group of 4 beamed quavers, D#-C#-B-A, then a crotchet G natural (but, arguably, six beamed quavers, the last two both being G nats, tied together). That makes six quavers. The final note should be tied to the first quaver of the second group made up of a further G nat, then quaver F# and so on.

In other words, if the music has been engraved competently, you should be able to identify hemiolas, and many other phenomena, simply by looking at how the music is engraved. Music publishers should - and mostly do - insist that their engravers and editors produce something that is as easy as possible to sight read and perform.

One work I engraved for performance was Philip Glass's _Vessels _from _Koyaanisqatsi_. It's worth finding the performance of this by Crouch End Festival Chorus on Spotify to hear how the bars of six quavers constantly shift between 3+3 and 2+2+2, to the point where the music is neither "in" one rhythm or the other.

[I use "engrave" loosely. These days, it means inputting the music into Sibelius of Finale or similar.]


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## Fdoublesharp (Oct 19, 2011)

^ Thank you. I can see that now. I also tried singing the rhythm to try and feel it better. What about this one? i think the hemiola is in bar 4 (3 groups of 4 again). Not sure about the 5th bar though, but I'll give my answer to what I think it is.... no hemiola there.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/687/cimg0178k.jpg/


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

I agree: a hemiola in bar 4. As in the previous example, the minims and dotted minims in each bar give the game away. If the bar is is in 2 groups of 6, longer notes can go up to dotted minims (as in bars 1-3). If the bar is 3 groups of 4, you get 3 minims (as in bar 4).

The final bar is 2 groups of 6.


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