Playing Quintuplets and Septuplets

[minimozart007]

I've seen these and other strange grouping
in a lot of romantic music.  I can understand the
fast scales in Chopin's music (i.e. 24th Prelude)
but the arps in the Grieg concerto? Help pls

[richard w]

Which arpeggios do you mean? Anyway, with any irregular time divisions the speed of the notes is determined by how many of them there are. From what I can remember, Grieg tends to beam notes together in groups that last one beat. (Other composers have been more flexible in their approach to beaming.) Therefore, if you have seven or nine or thirteen notes in a group you have to find a way of fitting them into one beat.

Let me know if that answered your question, and if it did not, perhaps suggest specific examples from the Grieg and I'll have a look.


Richard.