CITATION — REFERENCE ENTRY
voice-meter-form · smith1965-introduction-bluegrass
- Citation
- smith1965-introduction-bluegrass
- Claim ID
- voice-meter-form
- Assertion
- Bluegrass voices are typically high-pitched and tense, and keys are generally chosen to pitch voices as high as possible. Two basic meters are used: triple meter, more often for ballads and religious songs, and duple meter; bluegrass as a whole is faster than other hillbilly styles. In performance, voices and lead instruments take turns at the melody, typically about eight times through a piece, with vocal solos on the verses and harmony singing on the choruses; pieces usually last about two and a half minutes, a pattern probably shaped by the time limits of 78 rpm records.
- Quote
bluegrass voices are typically high-pitched and tense. Singing parts sometimes reach more than an octave above middle C, and keys for songs are generally chosen to pitch voices as high as possible. ... Two basic meters are used, each at several characteristic tempos. Triple meter, used more often for ballads and religious songs, is notated best as 3/4. Duple meter can be notated either as 4/4 or 2/4 ... the speed of bluegrass performance as a whole is greater than that of other hillbilly styles. ... Pieces are performed with voices and lead instruments taking turns at the melody part or some variation upon it. Usually there are about eight repetitions of the full two-unit sequence in each piece ... The vocal sections are often divided between solos for the stanzas and harmony singing for the burdens. Pieces usually last about two and one half minutes; the earlier time limitations of ten-inch 78 rpm discs probably caused the development of this pattern
- Quote language
- en
- Locator
- page: 247-249
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