Forum: music.stackexchange.com
Tags: <time-signatures>
Title: Why is greensleeves considered to be in sextuple meter?
Question: When I hear greensleeves it sounds like a waltz to me (bom-tah-tah / bom-tah-tah), why is it considered a sextuple ?   source :  https://www.inkling.com/read/the-enjoyment-of-music-kristine-forney-11th/part-1/chapter-2

Answers:
sents: text: In simple terms, 6/8 is compound !!
text: You are counting a relatively quick 1-2-3-1-2-3, as you say, which can feel like 3/4 or 3/8 - waltz like.
text: However, the second '1' is slightly less emphasised in 6/8, so it's counted ONE-two-three four-five-six.
text: (The four is where your second 'one', or 'bom' is).
text: 6/8, being compound, means that it can simultaneously be counted in 2 time, as ONE-tah-tah TWO-tah-tah.
text: Each syllable coinciding with one of the faster counts in the earlier example.
text: If the second 'bom' is as loud as the first 'bom' when you count, it will be in 3/4 or 3/8 time, but when the second 'bom' is quieter, but still louder than the other beats, the song will be in 6/8.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/2808/Tim
score: 4
sents: text: Music theory generally uses only duple and triple, not the quadruple and sextuple that your link mentions.
text: Any meter can be explained in terms of duple or triple along with simple or compound.
text: For example, the "sextuple" meter she mentions is compound duple meter.
text: It works like this.
text: Meter is a combination of strong and weak beats.
text: Two or a multiple of two strong beats per measure is duple, three or a multiple of three strong beats per measure is triple.
text: If there is only one strong beat per measure (2/4, 3/4), then all the beats count.
text: As for simple vs. compound, strong beats that subdivide into two are simple, those that subdivide into three are compound.
text: 2/4 and 3/4 subdivided in twos by default.
text: So, for the commonest time signatures: 2/2 Simple Duple 2/4 Simple Duple 3/4 Simple Triple 4/4 Simple Duple 6/8 Compound Duple 9/8 Compound Triple 12/8 Compound Duple
text: The fact that some strong beats are weaker than others makes no difference in whether a meter is compound or simple or duple or triple.
text: If you are having trouble with, say, the difference between 2/4 and 4/4, think about primary and secondary accents on syllables.
text: For example, "secondary" has a secondary accent on the third syllable: "SE-con-Da-ry".
text: In musical meter, the primary accent is on the first beat, and the secondary accent is on the other strong beat (if there is one).
text: In 4/4, the secondary accent is on 3.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/9399/BobRodes
score: 2
sents: text: Because it is in 6/8 and while you feel it in three, you feel it in two groups of three as is common for a song in 6/8.
text: In 6/8 two dotted quarter notes get the beat, but each dotted quarter note can further be divided into 3 eighth notes making you feel each beat in 3.
text: That is how songs in 6/8 typically works.
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/7222/Dom
score: 1
sents: text: The distinction between a slow 6/8 meter and a waltz is largely arbitrary.
text: It may be that the melody is intended to have a stronger downbeat on every alternate bar, and that many people perceive it that way, but the same is true for countless waltzes notated in 3/4 as well (mostly those that have even-length numbers of bars in their phrases).
text: The only objective reason to call something 3/4 if it has an odd number of bars.
text: (For a fast 6/8 meter, such as a typical tarantella, it's the short duration of the quavers that makes it much more appropriate to use 6/8, but "Greensleeves" isn't one of those at all.)
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/3083/Kilian Foth
score: 1
sents: text: Every copy I've seen of Greensleeves notates it in 3/4 time, but if one looks at the word stresses it could probably be notated just as well in 6/8 (with half as many measures) or perhaps 12/8 (with a quarter as many measures) since alternating measures definitely have stronger and weaker word stresses, as do alternating pairs of measures (though to a lesser degree).
text: I think that historically there has been a tendency to avoid the use of compound meters for slower tempos, even though such avoidance often results in notes being held routinely for entire measures.
text: Greensleeves doesn't have any really long notes, but consider the song "
text: On top of Old Smokey".
text: All the sheet music I've seen for that is likewise in 3/4, but each four-measure phrase has two notes which is held for a whole measure each, and the downbeat of the third measure is a rest.
text: The article you linked cites a nice example of a piece which is in triple meter without any sort of sextuple
text: feel:
text: Brahms' Lullaby.
text: In the English text "Lul-la-BY, and good NIGHT; in the SKY stars are BRIGHT", the stresses on "-by", "night", "sky", and "bright" are all roughly equal (interestingly, the "triple" example where it shows word stresses, "America", would fit naturally into a 6/8 meter while Brahm's Lullaby would not).
answer_details: author: music.stackexchange.com/users/5603/supercat
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
Music theory generally uses only duple and triple, not the quadruple and sextuple mentioned in the link.
Music theory generally doesn't use the term sextuple.