-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Beverly Jerold, Notes inégales: a definitive new parameter, Early Music, Volume 42, Issue 2, May 2014, Pages 273–289, https://doi.org/10.1093/em/cau029
Close - Share Icon Share
Abstract
New source material provides a definitive answer to the question of whether notes inégales—the French system of performing certain equal-note pairs unequally with mild dotting—was practised outside of France. It also clarifies the practice within France. According to Hotteterre (1719) and several other writers, notes inégales are cancelled when notes of smaller value than those eligible for inequality are present, a distinction necessary to have a viable system. In passages containing both dotted- and equal-note pairs, for example, the latter retain their equal value. They contrast with the dotted notes, which are always defined as adding one-half to the note’s value. Also noteworthy is the Paris violinist J.-B. Labadens’s assertion (1772) that the practice of inequality was only a means to decipher the rhythm, and should not be made apparent to the listener. Much earlier, François Couperin found the French system defective, and instructed that the vertical alignment in his harpsichord pieces shows the exact rhythmic placement of the notes. Indeed it does, and his notation often indicates overdotting by means of tied notes and rests. Writers who specifically excluded unwritten inequality in foreign music include Couperin, de Brossard, Hotteterre, Corrette and Rousseau. Foreign sources which have been thought to prescribe the French system do not satisfy the parameters for notes inégales. With respect to the well-known passage from Quantz (1752), a comparison with contemporaneous German sources reveals that it correlates with their subject of ‘good’ and ‘inferior’ notes. This, too, was (among other things) a system for deciphering the rhythm: notes on strong beats receive greater weight, but without changing note values. Thus French inequality does not apply elsewhere, except in the rare instance specified by the composer. By the latter part of the 18th century, the practice now called notes inégales, which was part of the most rudimentary music instruction, was receding in France.
