No QuarterTravels this morning included a swing by the local library. We have a tremendous library, with a tremendous set of patrons: as usual, the only reason I couldn't find the thing I sought was that someone else already had borrowed it. Usually I get to the library on foot, but today I took the box with wheels on, as I had to then go on to other places. By far the strangest part of all of this was that I finally got to try the new-fangled parking meter system that is spreading through the streets: little numbered posts and a solar-powered box to feed with money so it can cough back a slip of paper to be put on the dashboard. I was amused by the option of using a credit card for fifty cents worth of time; I do not think I have ever put so little money on one of those in one go. The credit card in my pocket makes no music; the coins in my pocket jingle sweet.
One of the things about modern music in this part of the world is that it is almost invariably in four-four time. Try it; reach for the nearest radio or what have you, fiddle with it until music comes forth, and listen to the merry invariant march of four beats, stress on the first and likely the third. The is plenty of variety in tempo, and sometimes dynamic range (although less so, these days). Time with my walking stick has given me a possible insight as to why this is so (although who walks anywhere anymore?). My friends who dance upon the polished wooden floors of ballrooms would scoff: they play in other signatures with regular abandon.
One of the things about antique music from what became this part of the world is that the people who played it were a lot more flexible about this sort of thing. The rhythms of the music are often broken and hidden under melody, and they were as apt to tune their stereos (had they had them) to something with four thumps of the drum as they would to three, and even sometimes stranger things. My waltzing friends, I think, would still scoff: three-four time is waltzing cadence, after all, and they could manage a caper or two.
I think, with some of these songs, I would like to see them try it. And by that I mean: if they tried it, I would like to see it.
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