The African Hemiola Style

Abstract

The present writer has employed the phrase African hemiola-style in describing the most important rhythmic style of Africa. As used in European musical tradition from the Renaissance onward, the term refers, of course, to the interplay of two groups of three notes with three groups of two notes. This is accomplished without any durational change in the basic pulse unit, so that two groups of 3/4, for example, may become three groups of 2/4 without any metronome change in the quarter note. The important overall effect here is the quantitative alternation of two conductor's durations, one of which is longer or shorter than the other. This exchange of long and short is always in the ratio of 2:3, or 3:2, i. e., the longer duration is always one and one-half times the length of the shorter duration. Thus, the dotted-half note may be replaced by the half-note, or vice versa; the dottedquarter by the quarter; the dotted-eighth by the eighth, etc. The ancient Greek hemiolia meant just this--by one and onehalf--and referred to the paeonic or five-beat meter, which was realized in practice as a dotted-quarter plus a quarter (5/8), or a half plus a dotted-half (5/4). (Sachs, 1943:261). In Europe, the hemiola already existed in the fourteenth century, being designated by means of note-coloration. Although the term is sometimes confused with sesquialtera, which represented a rhythmic alteration also designated by note-coloration, the two derive from quite different rhythmic concepts: The hemiola derives from an unequal, asymmetric rhythmic approach, and the sesquialtera from an equal, symmetric rhythmic approach. The rhythms of Ancient Greece, India, and the Middle East exemplify the first, asymmetric style, while seventeenth to nineteenth century Western rhythms exemplify the second, or symmetric style. Curt Sachs calls the asymmetric style an additive style--by virtue of the emphasis within this style on the succession or addition of assorted durations, i. e., the exchange of longs and shorts. In contradistinction, he calls the symmetric style a divisive style--by virtue of the emphasis here on equally-divided measures, i. e., measures divided into regular durations. (Sachs, 1953:24-25). Note-coloration within an imperfect tempus (i. e., binary) gave rise to triplets (the im?erfect breve U or two quarters 3 became a triplet 4 0 ; )--this was sesquialtera; note-coloration within a perfect tempus (i. e., ternary) gave rise to regrouping rather than substitution (two perfect breves N 8 or two groups of three quarters JJ , AJJ became three

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