My copy of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah has the following tempo indication:
Moderately slow, in 2
What does the "in 2" mean? I couldn't find it in Wikipedia's glossary of musical terminology.
The piece is notated in 6/8.
asked Jan 21, 2017 at 12:51
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1 Answer
6/8 is actually 'two time'. Whilst some 6/8 tunes can be counted 123, 456, others will count as 1-- 2--, in the same time. So it's either a quicker count of 6, or a count at a third of the speed of 2. To explain - '1' will be the same in both counts, and '4' in the first is where '2' in the second comes. So this song is a slow two.
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"So it's either a quicker count of 6, or a count at a third of the speed of 2" -- could you explain that in detail, please? Intuitively I would stress 1 and 4 (assuming I'm counting 123456). Commented Jan 21, 2017 at 13:24
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In two means two beats per bar, so you are effectively counting dotted quarter notes, Tims minus signs are silent.– guidotCommented Jan 21, 2017 at 16:45
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@guidot Thanks for the clarification. Am I correct that within each triplet (123 and 456) only the first note is stressed? Commented Jan 21, 2017 at 18:24
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1The "official" (copyrighted) version of the sheet music is in 12/8 not 6/8, and doesn't include any tempo instruction except a metronome mark. See "version #2" at sheetmusic-free.com/hallelujah-piano-sheet-music-leonard-cohen. So the "in 2" was presumably added by the re-arranger for reasons best known to him/herself.– user19146Commented Jan 22, 2017 at 3:06
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1@FlorianBrucker - there are no triplets per se in 6/8 time. It's a triplet feel, but the notes are not written as triplets .– TimCommented Jan 22, 2017 at 8:17