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Towards the end of The Ramones' "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight)", the beat takes on a staggering quality when Joey sings "don't want to" in the chorus. In the following music video, it starts around 2:19:

The rest of the song sounds like a straightforward 4/4. What is this beat pattern called, and what is the exact structure?

Aaron
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outis
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2 Answers2

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It's still 4/4 time, but the rhythm performed is called a hemiola, meaning three notes in the time normally assigned to two. Notated, it would look something like this:

X: 1
T: Hemiola
M: 4/4
K: none
L: 1/4
(3BBB (3BBB |
w: don't want to x x x

Each group of three quarter-notes lasts two beats. Put another way, each quarter-note lasts 2/3 of a beat.

UPDATE: There are two uses of "hemiola". The looser usage, as above, is for three notes placed in the time of two. However, the stricter definition requires that the 3:2 relationship occur by regrouping the basic pulses, which is not the case here. See the comments below as well as Just how specific is the term “hemiola”?.

Aaron
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  • Same as the last two "Take Me Right Back To The Track, Jack" in Louis Jordan's performance of "Choo Choo Ch'Boogie", correct? – outis Jan 05 '21 at 10:05
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    Is this really a hemiola? I'd say it's triplets. Hemiolas are not new note values (dividing a beat into three rather than two), but rather regroupings of existing note values (making three groups of two rather than two groups of three, or vice versa), at least as I understand them. – Scott Wallace Jan 05 '21 at 13:03
  • @outis Yes, "Take me right" and "back to the" are both hemiolas. – Aaron Jan 05 '21 at 15:50
  • @ScottWallace Hemiola is the effect of the regrouping, not the regrouping itself. When you regroup two groups of three into three groups of two, the effect is to produce three (large) beats where there were previously two. – Aaron Jan 05 '21 at 15:52
  • My music dictionary sort of explains hemiola and triplet as synonymous. Obviously both involve tuplet notation. I think of "triplet" as a beat subdivision, but hemiola as a displacement of beats. In this song 2 beats becomes 3 beats, seems hemiola. – Michael Curtis Jan 05 '21 at 20:42
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    @MichaelCurtis which dictionary is that? I have never encountered hemiola except to describe a twofold grouping of beats in a triple meter. That is, yes, a triplet in a certain sense, but unlike the triplets here it does not change the underlying subdivision of the beat. That is, under this definition this example might be said to be hemiola if the unmodified meter were 12/8 or if there were triplet-eighth-notes going on. The "my experience" definition of hemiola, furthermore, involves no tuplet notation at all. Most baroque music in triple meter does this right before the cadence. – phoog Jan 05 '21 at 22:38
  • @Phoog, wish I had Grove's, but it's _ Harvard Brief Dictionary of Music_. The particular wording was fairly loose: "...note values...in the relationship of 3 to 2, as in the modern triplets, or..." and then it gives figure in 6/4 of two dotted half notes followed by 3 plain half notes. I thought it interesting "triplet" mentioned. No actual triplet figures given. – Michael Curtis Jan 05 '21 at 22:54
  • also included is "..resulting in a change from 6/4 to 3/2 or vice versa." – Michael Curtis Jan 05 '21 at 22:55
  • After some review, yes, it's clear hemiola is defined in triple/compound meters. I thought of a triplet on a half note to be the duple meter equivalent. But there are no such examples in the definitions I found. – Michael Curtis Jan 05 '21 at 23:17
  • @MichaelCurtis the 1880 Grove is available at IMSLP. It's quite clear that the term originally meant "triplet" (and any similar mensural proportion), but I haven't encountered it used that way in modern practice, probably because we have "triplet" so we can use the terms for distinct concepts. I would love to be able to answer Richard's question by saying when the modern sense came into use or when (if?) "triplet" supplanted the old sense, but that requires more research than I can do at the moment. – phoog Jan 05 '21 at 23:23
  • oh, good! it's in a new, separate question. – Michael Curtis Jan 05 '21 at 23:24
  • @outis See the update to my answer. Based on the stricter definition of "hemiola", the Louis Jordan example would not be one. – Aaron Jan 05 '21 at 23:31
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Aaron has the right idea - although - it's the first half of each bar only. The drummer uses crotchet triplets for only the first half of each bar, the singer matching those three notes. More often, those sort of triplets run through a whole bar, as indicated in Aaron's answer.

Tim
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  • Not sure what you mean about the drummer and singer. They both perform the hemiola together. – Aaron Jan 05 '21 at 09:14
  • @Aaron - listened again, and yes, the first half of the bar they both play/sing triplets. Thanks! – Tim Jan 05 '21 at 09:38