Beaming in 3/4 (and 6/4)

[benwiggy]

Gould says: in 3/4 "any number of quavers can be beamed together" (with a proviso about distinguishing it from 6/8).

I recently came across this teaching website:
https://www.mymusictheory.com/learn-mus ... ming-notes

which claims that in 3/4:

"The quavers can be beamed right across two or three whole crotchet beats, but the first note of the group must fall on the beat, not on an off beat."


Ted Ross says: "a beam combines similar notes on adjacent beats", and goes on to say "Notes on the first beat can be beamed with the next", and so on.

Finale splits the beams at the beat in 3/4 -- unless you define it as "1 dotted minim", in which case it also beams 12 semiquavers together...

Dorico beams all the quavers together; though there are a plethora of options for note beaming.

Anyway, I'm working on a piece which has this figure, repeatedly:

Screenshot 1.png (9.14 KiB) Viewed 3477 times

Perhaps I've stared at it too long, but I'm wondering if it would be better beamed to the beat? In my head I'm over-emphasising the words "on the beat" in the quotes above.

There are also sections in 6/4, with a similar figure, where I'm more inclined to leave them as one group per half-bar.

Screenshot.png (12.09 KiB) Viewed 3477 times

Thoughts?

[John Ruggero]

This is what happens when rules about notation are made divorced from actual music.

Beaming should reflect the feeling of the music. If the 3/4 is felt in one, or the 6/4 in 2 etc. the beaming in five notes starting after the rest is fine. If the 3/4 is felt in 3, then showing the beats by means of the beaming might be more appropriate.

Beaming 12 16ths together in 3/4 is less common and should not be the Finale default, but check out Bach's Prelude to Partita no. 5 for a great variety of beaming in 3/4 including 12 16ths on one beam:
http://vmirror.imslp.org/files/imglnks/ ... _Copy).pdf

And if the source is suggesting that 8ths and 16ths can't be beamed together in larger groups in 3/4 that might begin or end with a rest, that isn't correct either.

Then there are those who make up music theory divorced from actual music...

[benwiggy]

Thanks, John

I'll leave it as in the source.

I pity anyone who has to come up with pithy descriptions of 'what is usual' in music notation.!

[John Ruggero]

Or anyone who has to design a whole notation program based on "what is usual"...