Chopped!

In our last episode, I discussed the way in which Beethoven's Für Elise can be felt according to its original 3/8 meter or alternately in 6/16. (Tip: The most fun is try to hear both at once!) Each option includes six 16th notes per bar, but the former groups the 16ths in three pairs and the latter groups them in two sets of three. After creating my little re-metering, I flashed back to an even earlier and even more iconic piano piece associated with children which can also be heard as 2x3 or 3x2. That's right, after chopping up Für Elise, today we'll be considering the most chopped piece ever: Chopsticks. 

A little research has confirmed that the closest thing to an original version of this music, which has surely been played many different ways as virally transmitted from child to child, uses the waltz-like 2x3 pattern:

You can hear it played in the 1946 Academy Award winning "The Best Years of Our Lives" here, with Hoagy Carmichael counting in "1, 2, 3." [video should begin at 2:09:53]

[If you need more waltzing chops, Liberace awaits you. He eventually ends up in duple meter.]

Of course, the version which was somehow known to every piano-adjacent child in America before the Internet and Tik-Tok introduced instant virality, would just feature the top staff above, played by single fingers of each hand in delightful contrary motion. Its appeal is surely in part based on the fact that the performer needn't worry about controlling independent digits (or hooks in the film clip above), with their relative strengths and weaknesses.

But getting back to meter, after a few Facebook conversations, I'm guessing it's true that most young piano pugilists feel these six-note repetitions in three groups of two rather than in two groups of three. I know I did. Like so:

[Just ignore the left hand in that quick re-alignment.]

So, here's a very famous melody which is probably meant to have the beat subdivided into threes (waltz feel), but which is maybe better known among children pounded out in groups of two or perhaps even "groups" of one! This makes sense since it requires a bit more musical and technical subtlety to group repeated notes in threes, with the second and third note of each group thus needing to be lighter. 

One of the tip-offs that the song should be felt in two groups of three (what I'll call a 6/8 feel) is the middle section which has a metrical pattern that is clearly 6/8. And this is what interests me most. That I, at least, learned this song with a 3/4 feeling, but switching to 6/8 in the middle and right back to 3/4 for the return of the opening. More or less like this:

This is as opposed to the more authentic and graceful (but somehow less interesting) through-waltz feel:



Notice it would be particularly awkward to play the entire piece in 3/4, though I've attempted to show how that might feel with my obnoxious percussion here:

And finally, I couldn't resist doing a more fun mixed-meter version inspired by Leonard Bernstein. 

I think that's all I have to say about that, and though I have already written about another kid-repertoire standard in the past, don't expect a feature on The Knuckle Song any time soon.

However, I shall be returning to Für Elise very soon as I'm finishing up a project I've had in mind for years. You've been warned.