Expert: Marbeth - 10/27/2009

Question
What exactly is hemiola(in music)?I've read about it but i really didn't understand.can please explain it to me with examples?which pieces of music contains hemiola?

Answer
It's when the song is in three counts to a measure and for a moment switches to two.  

Say you're in 3/4 time, with three quarter-notes in a measure:

X X X

For two measures, you have six quarter-notes:

X X X X X X

Those six quarter-notes can be grouped in 3s or in 2s.

If it's in 3s, as in 3/4 time, it's called triple meter.  If it's in 2s, then it's duple.

Ok.  You're sailing along in 3/4 time with  
BOOM chick chick BOOM chick chick
and suddenly there's a temporary regrouping to 2s.  That's the hemiola:
BOOM chick BOOM chick BOOM chick.
Six counts in each; the difference is the grouping.

("BOOM" indicates the downbeat or 1st count of the measure; "chick" indicates the 2nd and 3rd counts.)

Try this to show how hemiola works:

Clap your hands on "BOOM" and tap a tabletop on each "chick."  Compare clap - tap - tap with clap - tap.  You will see how the shift from triple to duple happens and see how it introduces a syncopation.

BOOM chick chick BOOM chick chick =  BOOM chick BOOM chick BOOM chick

Notice that you -must- have exactly two measures of 3/4 in order to regroup and form a hemiola or the math won't work out.  You can't do it with fewer than two measures, and you can't do it with more than two.  (Unless it's a string of hemiolas.  In this case, however, each hemiola must be formed from two, and only two, measures.)

~~

Hemiola is very common in Renaissance music.  Brahms also was particularly fond of it.  His most famous example is probably the beginning of Sym.  #3.  I particularly like it in the minuet movement of Schumann's Sym. #1.  Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, and everyone else uses it, too.
mb