Expert: Pat G - 6/11/2009

Question
This piece is written in 3/4 time yet there are five beats per measure in several measures of the bass( specifically measures 25, 26, 29)  The half notes are played as quarter notes and also have a quarter rest above them.  Can you help me explain this?

Answer
Hello, Laura,

To begin with, we need to know WHICH Minuet in G you are talking about. Here are two different ones: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIKKDXCP2_M
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzNouBul6_A . I have played both of these but I never noticed anything unusual about the meter, and I don't now, either. If you mean a different Minuet in G, you will have to provide a link where I can hear the music.

There have been times when I'm listening to a piece by Bach that I think that he did something unusual with the rhythm, and I would love to see the sheet music to see what is going on, but have never been in the right place at the right time to take a look. Bach was highly creative, and he did some unusual things. Not only that, but Bach wrote an enormous number of compositions, so we have to make sure we are on the same page before I can begin to answer your question.

Usually, when there is a quarter rest above a note, it means there was a different voice, that plays nothing at the moment, but observes a quarter rest instead. This could also explain your half notes, because they could be from two different voices, but offset from each other.