Find your balance, lift and sway

Such a graceful piece. Reminds me very much of Eric Satie’s Gymnopedies, which were possibly inspired by figures on an ancient vase and his imagining of the music they might have danced to. Whether you’ve seen the film, Gladiator, or not, its easy when listening to this music to imagine beautiful examples of the male form, glistening, muscles tensed, fiercely concentrated for battle, but their movements seen in slow motion. Balletic and powerful.

How do they do that?

The feature I’ll focus on in this piece is its “time signature” or number of beats in the bar. Most pop music has four beats in a bar, the first and third being stronger (often played on a heavy drum) with the second and fourth beats lighter (often played on a quieter drum or cymbal). It’s what gives that stamp, clap, stamp, clap feel. In this piece there are only three beats in a bar, with the first being strong and the next two lighter. This gives a sense of swaying or rising and falling as the music lifts off of the strong beat and hangs, momentarily, before landing on the next strong beat at the beginning of the next bar. Music with a time signature of three beats in the bar will often feel light and graceful. Most commonly used in a traditional waltz, you step firmly on the strong beat, then lift to tiptoes almost on the two weaker ones (apologies to any dancers if this is not quite how you do it!). So, when you’re watching ‘Strictly’ and the judges talk about the ‘rise and fall’ in the waltz, they mean embodying the natural movement inherent in the timing of this music!

Hope you enjoy it or feel inspired to listen to something new today.

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