THE WALTZ, ( AKA THE THREE QUARTER TIME )

Waltz is called VALSE among Filipinos and othes using the Latin Language..

For me, there are just two kinds of music as far as timing is concerned: the 4/4, the one which we just studied and the 3/4..This is the valse, the waltz..

If you examine the music score of say BLUE DANUBE WALTZ, you will find that the key signature at the beginnig of the first bar is 3/4.

If you examine the notes contained in each measure, there are only 3 quarters..Thus the other name, 3 quarter time...

When you conduct a 3/4 music your hand goes:

first...down, second...right, third, up...Just 3 beats to complete a measure...Nothing simpler..

Thus when you beat to the music of say MALINAK LAY LABI you go, down, right, up, down right up..ad infinitum until the piece ends...

NARANIAG NGA BULAN is also written in 3/4..And so with SILVER BELLS ( hmmm almost time for those bells to go out ringin' again )...

In the beginning of this paragraph, I said there are only two kinds of music timing..I greatly simplified it...

There is the timing called 6/8...There are 6 1/8 notes in each measure..If you add these mathematically, you will get 3/4..Bingo...!

A very common song written in 6/8 is the carol SILENT NIGHT..But when I conduct a choir singing, I use the 3/4 method, down, right, up..But the way I count is not 1,2,3, 1,2,3...rather it is 1,2,3,4,5,6....then 1,2,3,4,5,6....Some conductors, use a different way, but I do not want to go into it....Too technical..And it might be too boring...

Once in a while you will come across a music score in 9/8.. Yes there are some scores written this way..


In 3/4 music scores, you will be meeting the dotted half note...It is the half note with a dot beside it.. The dotted half note has 3 counts. The undotted half has just 2 counts. Why?..The answer is somewhere in the past Blog pages on this topic..Yes, the dot extends the life or value of a note by 1/2 of the actual value of the note...

Now we come to the rests..There are 3 rests in each 3/4 measure..

By the way, the rests are also dotted..And it also extends the value in the same way as the notes....

A 3/4 measure with only a dotted half note inside ( or a dotted half rest ) is mathematically correct...

And finally, a waltz also follows the no. 8 with regards to music phrases..( remember this lesson ?) Each musical phrase in a 3/4 composition has also 8 measure...

End of lesson..Til next time again folks!