Beethoven and time signature changes.

[Enrique]

That sounds like Beethoven just changed meter. It sounds similar to the end of the A section in the scherzo of the Ninth where Beethoven changes meter from 3/4 to 2/2 to prepare for the trio in 2/2. That one obviously being explicit, though.

Yes, Beethoven writes "ritmo di quattro battute" (literally four-bar rythym [damn word, I never know how to spell it]), though that makes it 12/4. There is also a "ritmo di tre battute" a little before that.

[hal9000]

Oops, I meant 7:25. Those last three bars Beethoven has accented every other beat, so it sounds like he's changed meter but he hasn't really.

1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3*

Something like that (with the last beat* being a rest), which is a hemiola. There's every chance I'm wrong, though.



Those sound clips are from here, which is an excellent read and analysis of the Eroica. The first sound clip and how Beethoven manipulates the rhythm is described in detail here.

[hal9000]

[damn word, I never know how to spell it])

Rhythm Has Your Thin Hips Moving

[Enrique]

To be honest, I had never heard the word 'hemiola', though it exists in Spanish (hemiolia). As I read in Wikipedia, it happens, for example, when one voice does quarter - quarter while another simultaneously does quarter - quarter - quater, that is, two notes span the same time interval as the three notes. If this is the correct definition, then the first movement of the Moonlight provides what could be called an hemiola --when the first theme debuts in the right hand (by the way I wonder what the second theme is, if there is one). Thanks for the mnemonics.