5/4 subdivision "rules"

[MichelRE]

@John Ruggero and here's another spot where I think avoiding tied notes would make patterns clearer... since it's the same dotted quarter - eighth pattern twice in a row.

[hautbois baryton]

I think the key for these slow 5/4 measures is just to be consistent. It's okay to avoid ties as long as the rhythm is clear and unambiguous.

Keep in mind that the conductor may override the subdivisions just by the way they conduct the piece.

[John Ruggero]

Both cases (particularly the second one above) look like a real 2 + 3 to me and may show that you are really writing a 5/4 movement that is sometimes in 2 + 3 and sometimes in 3 +2 and perhaps sometimes in both simultaneously. It would be pretty hard not to at a slow tempo. In which case, write it so that these groupings are clear. In the first example, I would interpret the tied version as a syncopation and the other way not, so there would be a difference in the result.