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Can anyone explain the significance of the small notes in the following music? An otherwise identical arrangement in a different "easy" song book shows only quarter notes without the smaller notes. What is the difference in how it's played? And is there a name for what these small notes represent here?

Small notes directly following regular sized notes and beamed together with the regular sized notes.

T. A. Wheeler
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3 Answers3

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Despite my comment, I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that this is a strophic song, with verses having different numbers of syllables. The small notes are to accommodate the extra syllables in those verses that have more of them.

When I can think of an example, I'll edit this answer to add it.

As pointed out by Richard in a comment, this technique is also frequently seen in translated music, when the translation has a different number of syllables from the original.

phoog
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    Or different languages (and thus different syllabizations). – Richard Feb 19 '20 at 22:02
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    @Richard excellent point. – phoog Feb 19 '20 at 22:03
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    YES! This indeed a case of a "strophic" song. (A new word for my vocabulary.) And the extra notes exactly accommodate second verse syllables. Thank you. – T. A. Wheeler Feb 19 '20 at 22:20
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    "strophic", when sung by a cat, is "cat-a-strophic". – rexkogitans Feb 20 '20 at 13:05
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    Anything sung by a cat is catastrophic. – WGroleau Feb 20 '20 at 16:29
  • Note that the opposite, less syllables in other verses or languages, is indicated by a dotted or dashed tie. Example: the 2nd full bar of https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/v3bH3vXTONiJPmdZ8tk52YxNoZOAOpmzOgmRtfvnXafV4DjIAla_yFY6aPL-NiwWJ7t4rni1pKWR-Fdvqk_wpqDeE0OrCliE51_P7CWxrZRoHg where only the 3rd verse has an extra syllable. Only in the other verses should the tie be applied. – MeanGreen Feb 21 '20 at 13:28
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    @WGroleau Evidently doubly so when taken from the stage to the screen... – J... Feb 21 '20 at 14:00
  • They are cue notes. – Vighnesh Jul 21 '23 at 15:22
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As already mentioned, this is a way to notate a strophic song. Depending on the type of song, it could also be described as having an "irregular metre".

This is described on Wikipedia here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_(hymn)#Terminology_and_abbreviations

A few hymns have an inconsistent metrical pattern across their verses. Such a metre is described as '"irregular"; one well-known example is O Come, All Ye Faithful.

plebbus
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The key is "song book", I guess. There will be several stanzas (or several languages, at any rate several versions of lyrics) with different syllable counts. Depending on the syllable count of the line you sing, you'll need to use the above or the below notes.

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    YES! This indeed a case of a "strophic" song. (A new word for my vocabulary.) And the extra notes exactly accommodate second verse syllables. Thank you. – T. A. Wheeler Feb 19 '20 at 22:22