Mutation of Fiddle Rhythm

Listening to the band, Green Man, I was struck by their masterful combination of rhythmic creativity and integrity. They have complete control of the rhythm of their music even while shifting from one context to another in the same piece. You wonder, Are they in a jig, a reel, hey! Where are they now?

That intriguing and fascinating experience got me thinking on the subject of rhythmic mutation or transformation, especially in fiddle performance.

On the macro scale, tunes or songs are changed from being in three to being in four. Or, taken out of four and put into three.

A good example of the latter is found in Peter Cooper’s Mel Bay’s Complete Irish Fiddle Player. "Star of County Down" is presented first as a song in common time. Then, it gets redone as a waltz, the way we usually play it.

Stretching a waltz into four-four time is also done. In the Kenny Baker/Fiddle book, we find "Charmaine," a waltz from uptown pop music of seventy years ago, played as a swing tune in cut time. Baker credits Stephane Grappelli for the inspiration.

You may have heard the Chieftains change from a jig to a reel on the same tune. As Cooper writes, “Traditional musicians have always been in the habit of recycling old tunes to fit new rhythms.”

How Rhythm Mutation is Done

You may be asking how to create this sleight-of-hand in rhythm. Here’s the secret behind the examples given.

To change "Star of County Down" from four to three beats a measure, notes must be stretched to fit. What is two beats in the song becomes three beats in the waltz.

The opposite is done with "Charmaine." It gets contracted. Notes get shortened a little bit to fit the new scheme of two-beat bars. What is three beats in the waltz becomes two beats in the swing version.

I have heard folkies playing with this concept. You don’t have to be a recording artist with the “Standard Rich and Famous Contract” to play this game. You can be one of those “traditional musicians” that Peter Cooper refers to.

The Micro Level of Rhythm Mutation

Getting back to the original thought that inspired this newsletter, the mutation can be done on a smaller level. It may hold only for one bar or part of a bar and still have a noticeable influence on our perception of the rhythmic pulse.

The Green Man musicians are especially artful and subtle in their rhythmic alchemy. One rhythm is established, then another rhythm is extracted from the first by subtle shifts of the accent or melody.

We fiddlers do these mysterious shifts in a manner that can be very simple and accessible even for an intermediate level fiddler. For example, a jig can be given a displaced feel by simple emphasis on the one, three and five of the internal rhythm.

Here’s the extended explanation. Jigs are normally counted in two. Each beat is subdivided, (that’s a precise musical term), into three pulses. Ya-da-da Ya-da-da. Take those two three pulse units together and you have six pulses. Now emphasize as above. You get Ya-da Ya-da Ya-da. Now we’re talking three beats to a bar, not two.

When you have a bar of three rhythmic pulses where you have been hearing two, you feel a strong sense of change. It really gets your attention.

Two jigs are included in the tabs to show clearly how this is done. Just compare them to the same tunes in your 43 Fiddle Tunes in Tab. (You do have that, don’t you?)

Some would call it a three against two feel. That’s an advanced musical term, also. It means both rhythms, the three and the two, are made strong at the same time. This is common in serious or “classical music. The preeminent composer for this is Johannes Brahms. You’ll find this in jazz, and sometimes even in rock and roll.

It has a slightly mechanical, clockwork feel. You may be encouraged to move your head in time with it, but you don’t feel like moving your feet. It ain’t dance music.