Where the accent should be when the beat is made up of different notes
As far as I understood the difference between the various time signature is essentially where strong and soft beats are located. For example in 4/4 we have strong beat - soft beat - medium strong beat and soft beat. In 3/4 strong beat- soft beat - soft beat. In compoud time signatures the strong beat is the first of each three.
The question is, if the single beat is made up of different notes where should the accent be located?
For example:
Case A
Case B
Case C
What's the general rule to determine the position of the accent?
3 Comments
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Case C is in 6/8 so, as you say, the strong beat is the first of each three. Your example is written as if it's a 3/4 bar. Strictly speaking, it should be written:
6/8 bars are counted in two groups of three quavers (eighth notes). I've marked the main beats 1 and (1) and you should be tapping your foot on those, even though there is no note on the second one '(1)'.
The first four notes are accented as Aaron described in his first example, and the last two are semi-strong.
Composers have exploited the similarity between 6/8 bars and 3/4 ones for centuries. You could read about this - hemiola, as it's called - here. Or just listen to Ginastera's Malambo, the 4th movement of his Estancia Suite.
The accents for subdivisions follow the same pattern as for time signatures. So, a subdivision of 4, like
X:0
K:none
L:1/16
cyycyycyyc
s: strong weak semistrong weakest
And a subdivision of 3 would be
X:0
K:none
L:1/4
(3c/2c/2c/2
s: s w+ w-
and all of those accents are relative to which beat in the measure contains those subdivisions.
6/8 would be S,W,W,M,W,W
Where S=strong, W=week, M=medium
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