Claire de Lune Debussy Bar 33 rhythm

[holybrook]

How to execute correctly  Bar 33 as in Durand Edition 2002 with the tuplet numbers above the descant and bass parts without falling into the trap of playing the semi-quavers as triplets.  There are 7 quavers in the bar instead of 9.  So not interrupting the flow of previous and following bars is crucial.

Any advice would be much appreciated

[thorn]

You're still looking at a bar of 9/8. There are not 7 quavers in the bar!

I assume you're counting triplets because you're doing 3 quavers + 4 quavers in the time of 3 = 7. You're still in 9/8 and what you actually have is 3 quavers + 2 quavers in the time of 3 + 2 quavers in the time of 3 =9.

If you count the semiquavers in the surrounding bars, you'll see you still have a total of 18 (3 groups of 6)! The bar you're talking about can be broken into 3 groups of 6 semiquavers too!

Hope that helps!

[holybrook]

Yes, thanks Thorn.  I've seen the light.  Your time in explaining it clearly, is much appreciated.