3/4 Beatings in Philidor

Return to “Performing Philidor’s Drum Beatings” or “18th C. French Drumming”.

Unfortunately, we fall into some problems understanding the triple time signatures, including 3, 3/2, 3/8, and 3 cut.

According to Herissone, throughout the 1600s, new time signatures were developing to understand the shift in triple time’s meter. Problematically, she notes:

“the French sign 3 which Playford was the first to use was soon adopted as the most common symbol of triple time, and, for many, it continued not to be associated with any particular pulse”

Herissone (69)

For this reason, these differing time signatures do not always appear to indicate different meters or to indicate the modern meter we would expect.

To understand the beatings in Philidor labelled 3, we first looked to the one beating in Instruction des Tambours written in 3; unfortunately, it doesn’t notate where the steps fall and therefore can’t instruct us in the pulse of the music.

However, there are two beatings in Philidor (L’Assemblée on pg. 26 and La Generalle de la garde Françoise on pg. 2) that are written in 3, but are otherwise identical to the beatings in Instruction des Tambours written in 6/4. The only difference is that 6/4 has 2 steps to a measure, whereas 3 has 1 step to a measure. For this reason, we can assume that the time signature 3 ought to also be cut and understood as 3/8.

We see a similar understanding in English music. A lot of 18^th Century English tunes and beatings that are written out in 3/4 are actually meant to be performed in 3/8, such as the English Assembly and many versions of the Duke of York’s Favorite Troop.

For the most part, when translating Philidor’s beatings in 3, I put them into 6/8, for simplicity.

Performing 3/4

Here’s an example of how a beating in 3 sounds in an untitled beating in Philidor, page 85.

Want to learn more about Tempo and how to perform Triple Time in the 18th Century?

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More Resources:

If you want more music from Philidor’s Collection, check out my book ‘Philidor’s Drum Beatings’.

If you have questions or comments regarding interpreting The Philidor Collection, contact me or comment below.