The meter signature we see at the start of a piece does not necessarily indicate the underlying pulse. For instance, pieces in 6/8 usually are felt in two large pulses, not six small pulses. And we count 1 2 3 4 5 6, accenting 1 and 4. In discussing movement and beat in music, Johann Phillip Kirnberger compared it to language: "It is exactly as with common speech, in which it is only through the use of accents and the length or shortness of syllables that we can make words and phrases distinguishable." ¹

Music that is measured, as opposed to unmeasured, necessarily needs regular accents. Consequently, we as performers need to analyze our pieces in terms of recurring beats, or in terms of motions of a conductor’s arm in the "tactus-note value relationship" ² of the 17th century. Then we can accent accordingly, through articulation, as we play.

Kirnberger clarified: "Meter consists of the exact uniformity of accents which are put onto a few tones, and in the completely regular distribution of long and short syllables. It is when these particular heavy or light accents re-occur on the same beat that a song receives its meter or beat. If these accents were not distributed regularly, creating the exact periodic repetition, then the song would resemble very common prose speech; through these periodic repetitions, however, it resembles verse which has its exact meter." ³

Baroque dances are like verse and determining accent within their measures will enable us, in the words of Little & Jenne, to "rhythm" the meter. ⁴ "A performer must first locate the level of the beat, or, in other words, find out what note value represents one beat." ⁵ Call it "motion & repose" as Little & Jenne do, or call it "accent." We find it most often by determining the harmonic rhythm of the music or by identifying the longest note values or sometimes by motific characteristics.

The musical EXAMPLE shows Froberger’s Courante from Suite III (you can hear it on my CD "Suites & Treats"). The meter signature C3, according to Neumann, indicates a slow 3. ⁶ Given our general knowledge of courantes and their ambiguity when it comes to beats, (sometimes 3, sometimes 2) a quick analysis would prove useful.

The first measure is probably in 3, based on harmonic rhythm and the placement of the half notes in the lower voices. The second measure is similarly voiced, in some respects, but the harmonic rhythm makes it more obviously in 2 and the third measure is even more in 2. The bass note values in measure 5 make it in 2 and measure 6 is in 3.

Perhaps you disagree – its entirely possible with some measures! That’s the fun of teaching and playing courantes. But whether in 3 or in 2, it’s up to us to provide the silences of articulation necessary to project our interpretation of these beats.

Although we may wish for a conductor at times, or hope that our listeners can envision the "tactus," that we feel, it is us, the soloists, who must beat time, by using larger articulations at the points where we feel the underlying beats, or pulses. In that way we may illuminate our listeners as to one more wonder of OUR world – the pulse of baroque music. And harmony, again, directs us in this task.

Notes, Part 3

1. Johann Phillip Kirnberger, Dis Kunst des reinen Satzes, cited by Anthony Newman in Bach and the Baroque, (New York: Pendragon Press, 1985), p. 25.
2. Ibid., p. 25 & 26
3. Frederick Neumann, "Changing Times: Meter, Denominations, and Tempo in Music of the 17th and 18th Centuries," Historical Performance, Spring, 1993. p. 23.
4. See Meredith Little and Natalie Jenne, Dance and the Music of J. S. Bach, Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1991), p. 16.
5. Ibid., p. 17.
6. Neumann, op. cit., p. 25

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