Define "Furiant"

[SLyGeN]

According to my Father, who has a four-year degree in music, a Furiant is a dance in 6/8 time, with alternating accents on the first and fourth of the bar, to accents on the first, third, and fifth of the bar.

According to Wikipedia and Answers.com's musical dictionary, a Furiant is a dance alternating between 2/4 and 3/4 time.

So, I ask for clarification.

Cheers

[Moseph]

I hadn't heard the term before, but here's what the Harvard Dictionary of Music says about furiant:

"A Bohemian folk dance in a rapid tempo alternating 3/4 and 2/4 meters. Examples in art music are in 3/4 with strong accents forming pairs of beats resulting in occasional hemiola patterns". [it goes on to list examples of such works.]

So it sounds like the original folk music from which the term was derived used the 3/4 2/4 alternations, and then composers developed it into "3/4 with strong accents forming pairs of beats resulting in occasional hemiola patterns," which is basically a less rigid way of applying the idea. What your father described resembles the latter.

I found an art music example. Check out the first movement in this Smetana piece from the International Music Score Library Project. It's in 3/4, but the phrasing feels like 2/4 most of the time. There are also parts which seem more like 6/8.

EDIT: Forget what I said about the phrasing. Just listened to part of a recording of this piece -- I hadn't noticed the presto marking when I glanced over it and it moves much faster than I had thought. Parts of it feel very much like the meter your father was talking about.

[Dhsu]

Indeed. If the 2/4 segments were split into triplets, the two definitions would be musically equivalent.

[Moseph]

Indeed. If the 2/4 segments were split into triplets, the two definitions would be musically equivalent.

Almost, but under the 6/8 definition the length of the beat varies between quarter note and dotted quarter note, and under the 3/4 2/4 variation it always remains a quarter note. (This is assuming there isn't anything weird that goes on with the 3/4 2/4 version, since I haven't seen an actual example.)

[atmuh]

i thought it was an angry elephant

man was i wrong

[SLyGeN]

Thanks for the responses, I'll have my dad take a look, and see if he still insists that it must be 6/8 time or if there is some musical equivalence between 2/4 and 3/4 with triplets thrown in.

Also he'll appreciate your comment too, Atma.

[Moseph]

Thanks for the responses, I'll have my dad take a look, and see if he still insists that it must be 6/8 time or if there is some musical equivalence between 2/4 and 3/4 with triplets thrown in.

What I'm thinking is that furiants are not technically notated in 6/8, but they feel as though they're in 6/8, and thinking of them as being in 6/8 is the clearest way to understand what's going on rhythmically.

(As far as metric equivalence goes, four measures of the traditional 3/4 could be rewritten as two measures of 6/8 without any significant changes.)

I feel Finale calling to me ... maybe I'll notate some examples.

[SLyGeN]

Yes, I understand how that works mathematically, but feel free to write it out for anybody else who may read this thread. The only concern is an absolute definition, and if the Harvard Dictionary of Music says 2/4 and 3/4, it's probably accurate. What's weird is a dictionary like that and a person with a B.A. in Music, both, are very credible sources. For them to disagree is unnerving.