Editing Notes inégales (section)

===French origins===

It was in France, beginning in the late 16th century, that ''notes inégales'' began to take on a critical role in performance practice. The earliest treatises that mention inequality of notes in performance indicate that the reason for this practice is to add beauty or interest to a passage which otherwise would be plain. Over 85 [[music theory]] and performance treatises from France alone mention the topic between 1550 and 1810, with the large majority written between 1690 and 1780. Within this body of writing there is considerable inconsistency, but by the late 17th century a consensus practice began to emerge.

The typical rule, from the late 17th century until the [[French Revolution]], is that ''notes inégales'' applies to all notes '''''moving stepwise''''' which have a duration of ''one quarter the denominator of the meter'', for instance, eighth notes in a meter of {{music|time|2|2}}, or sixteenth notes in a meter of {{music|time|4|4}}; and ''one half the denominator of the meter'' in cases of triple or compound meter, for instance, eighth notes in {{music|time|3|4}}, sixteenth notes in {{music|time|3|8}}, {{music|time|6|8}} and {{music|time|9|8}}. In addition, the ''inégales'' could only function on one metrical level; for example, if sixteenths are to be played long–short, long–short, an even eighth-note pulse must be carefully maintained for the music to retain its shape.<ref>Steve O’Connor [http://www.practicapps.com/csun/411/papers05/NotesInegales(OConnor).pdf Notes Inégales and rhythmic alterations of the 18th and 19th centuries] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102101930/http://www.practicapps.com/csun/411/papers05/NotesInegales(OConnor).pdf |date=2013-11-02 }}</ref>

In [[Georg Muffat]]'s codification of ''notes inégales'' in the Lullist tradition, he says it is the first level of diminution that is subject to inequality procedure.

Sometimes the ''notes inégales'' are notated as unequal, for example in some of the keyboard works of [[François Couperin]], where he uses a dot to indicate the lengthened note. This and similar passages by [[Jean-Philippe Rameau|Rameau]] (in his first Gavotte) clearly show that this means to apply an even greater amount of inequality to dotted eighth–sixteenth note pairs than to eighth–eighth pairs, which are already understood to be played unequally. The exact amount of inequality required is also unspecified, and most of the treatises leave this detail to the taste of the performer. It may have varied from double-dotted to minimally perceptible, depending on the context. Some recent papers and books include a full analysis of this topic as well as practical guides for the performer. Also, musical clocks have been discovered from the period that show the dotting very clearly<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Qeq1AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA243 "Performance Practice, a Dictionary Guide for Musicians" page 243]</ref><ref>[https://openlibrary.org/books/OL3048650M/Mechanical_musical_instruments_as_a_source_for_the_study_of_notes_ine%CC%81gales Mechanical Musical Instruments as a Source for the Study of Notes Inégales]</ref> as such devices have "preserved performances of ''notes inégales'' that are often as subtle as a 3:2 ratio (i.e. three fifths of a beat for the first note, two fifths for the second in the pair), as well as the more obvious 2:1 ratio ([[triplet (music)|triplets]]), and 3:1 (dotted eighth–sixteenth pairs and their multiples).<ref>Dirk Moelants [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.1525/mp.2011.28.5.449?uid=3738032&uid=2129&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21101244144263 The Performance of Notes Inegales: The Influence of Tempo, Musical Structure, and Individual Performance Styleon Expressive Timing] Music Perception Vol. 28, No. 5, June 2011</ref><ref>Dirk Moelants [https://biblio.ugent.be/input/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=436857&fileOId=794506 Notes Inégales’ in Contemporary Performance Practice] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102093143/https://biblio.ugent.be/input/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=436857&fileOId=794506 |date=2013-11-02 }}</ref><ref>Engramelle, [https://books.google.com/books?id=4MoXAQAAIAAJ La tonotechnie: ou L'art de noter sur les cylindres et tout ce qui est susceptible de notage dans les instruments de concerts méchanique] 1775 (Google ebooks)</ref><ref>Robert L. Marshall [https://books.google.com/books?id=OIss02xj4wYC&dq=Engramelle%2C+notes+inegales&pg=PA130 Eighteenth Century Keyboard Music] — "Engramelle introduces a large numbers of ratios to represent uneven notes (such as 2:2, 3:1, 3:2 and even 7:5), but he ultimately concedes that his mathematical and mechanical constructs at best can only approximate the subtleties of the art"</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
| [[File:Notes inegales-striaght.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|4|4}} without notes inégales]]
| [[File:Notes inegales-7c5.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|4|4}} with notes inégales – ratio 7:5]]
| [[File:Notes inegales-3c2.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|4|4}} with notes inégales – ratio 3:2]]
| [[File:Notes inegales-2c1.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|4|4}} with notes inégales – ratio 2:1]]
| [[File:Notes inegales-3c1.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|4|4}} with notes inégales – ratio 3:1]]
|-
| [[File:Notes inegales-3o4-straight.theora.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|3|4}} without notes inégales]]
| [[File:Notes inegales-3o4-7c5.theora.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|3|4}} with notes inégales – ratio 7:5]]
| [[File:Notes inegales-3o4-3c2.theora.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|3|4}} with notes inégales – ratio 3:2]]
| [[File:Notes inegales-3o4-2c1.theora.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|3|4}} with notes inégales – ratio 2:1]]
| [[File:Notes inegales-3o4-3c1.theora.ogv|thumb|133 px|center|{{music|time|3|4}} with notes inégales – ratio 3:1]]
|}

There were situations which were understood to be exempt from application of ''notes inégales''. A broken arpeggiated figuration in the left hand, such as an [[Alberti bass]], was always understood to be played regularly. Sometimes one sees the explicit marking: ''croches égales'' meaning equal quavers or eighth notes. Passages which mixed note values may have been exempted from the practice. Occasionally a long slur printed over a series of notes was understood to imply that all the notes should be played evenly, except that the first note under the slur could be accented. Passages which were highly disjunct were also less likely to be played unequally than conjunct passages, although the sources are not unanimous on even this.

If the effect of a passage was dotted, the compelling rhythm of the dotted notes, or ''notes inégales'', would sometimes simply override all the rules. The Handel Fugue in D Minor from the First Sett of Suites 1709 in its first editions shows the first few notes of the theme with dotted rhythms, but the dots stop after 4 note for the first two entries; the next two entries Handel only bothers to dot the first two notes. The energy of the piece seems such that the dotted texture might best remain throughout, however the long–short ''notes inégales'' can occasionally be supplanted with some "short–long" moments, still retaining the dotted effect, or as John O'Donnell describes it, "The Majestic Style", but some variance can work quite effectively, and still adhere to many of the rules.

In particular, in much of French music, and a lot in Handel as well, there are problems the performer faces, and the most prevalent one is this: sometimes at the approach of cadences in an ''notes inégales'' texture, the composer suddenly writes some dotted notes out explicitly and sometimes then stops; the inconsistency of dotting has continued to be a problem for every musicologist, theoretical and performer. Anthony Newman has suggested in an article, that there was an undocumented convention that the dotted texture recedes generally at the approach to a cadence, all other musical factors and concerns being equal, and that is why the dots stop and start sometimes quite oddly towards the approach to cadence.