A few months, I bought a C.D. of the U.S. Marine Corp Bnad performing Sousa Marches.

I was listening to El Capitan, and it sounds like the first two strains are in 6/8 time and the trio is in cut time. Are my ears deceiving me. I remember playing that march back in the day, but, I don't remember it changing time signatures.

Wildman,

I don't know the march, but its possible. The USMC band may have been performing a different arrangement of the march and they do like to showcase being able to play things with a greater degree of difficulty. But then again, they didn't call Sousa the "March Master" for nothing, so the march may very well flip flopped between time signatures.

MaximusPHA1898, I know the difference between 6/8 time and cut time, so I had to look it up.

El Capitan also refers to the march of the same name, composed of themes from the operetta. This march is like other operetta marches (1897's Bride Elect, 1900's Man Behind the Gun, and 1906's Free Lance) with its use of both 6/8 (parts A & B) and 2/4 (parts C & D) sections. Also like the Bride Elect and the Man Behind the Gun this march has an introduction between part C and D. It follows style IAABBCCIDD.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Capitan_%28operetta%29

Actually it could be that it seems to change time sig.. This is called a Hemiola which has been adopted in to our music as being in one time signature but seem to be in a different. Mostly in 3/4 but my seem like a 3/2... It gets kind of confusing.... The example I used is a frequently use Hemiola. In lame man's term its like saying beats per measure is different than time signature.

Well there it is. Thanks for the education. A girl at my church won the Sousa award this school year, so I have more info to tell her the next time I see her.

quote:

Originally posted by Da1Nonly:
Actually it could be that it seems to change time sig.. This is called a Hemiola which has been adopted in to our music as being in one time signature but seem to be in a different. Mostly in 3/4 but my seem like a 3/2... It gets kind of confusing.... The example I used is a frequently use Hemiola. In lame man's term its like saying beats per measure is different than time signature.

Naw, its not Hemiola. You need to hear it is a definite time change and the Wikipedia article confirms what I heard. To be absolutely sure, we could call some Band directors who have "El Capitan" in their library.