The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #166158   Message #3992789
Posted By: leeneia
17-May-19 - 12:47 PM
Thread Name: musical brain-teaser
Subject: musical brain-teaser
Here's a link to a YouTube video with music I can't figure out:

alemanha

Here a dance troupe from Thuringia is dancing at a festival in Brazil. "Alemanha" means Germany in Portuguese.

The first piece of music they are dancing to caught my fancy, and I decided to transcribe the sheet music. It is surprisingly hard. I can't figure out the timing. Is it 4/4. 3/4, 6/4? The accompaniment, which is a steady thudding, is no help. Maybe the guitarist doesn't know the time signature either.

I have rules for time signatures:

   When the chord changes occur in erratic places, the time is wrong.
   When a phrase is repeated, it ought to occur in the same place in
   the measures.
   A folk piece should not bristle with dots, ties and rests.
   When you just can't play the thing, the time is prob. wrong.

In its quiet way, this is a unique piece of traditional music and deserves to be preserved. Any ideas?