Implied Accents

This week, the subject of implied accents has come up 5 different times in 5 different ways with 5 different students. I felt that if I was being asked about it this much, it needs to be told on a broader scale. By the way, if you have a question you would like me to answer about music, feel free to contact me. I can feature your question in an article.

So, let’s learn some music theory!

If you can’t tell, I love music theory, which is a good way to put people to sleep at parties. If you like talk about music theory, we should totally hang out. 🙂

What Is an Implied Accent?

An implied accent is an accent that the composer assumes you already know because of music theory and common performance rules. Sometimes they’re also called imaginary accents. Here are the two major implied accents:

1. Time Signature Accents
2. Slur Accents

Time Signature Accents

There are accents in each measure based on the time signature. I will list the most common time signatures below. I didn’t officially learn about these until I took percussion pedagogy class in college, but I subconsciously knew about them before that. Implied accents aren’t always taught by the teacher. Most teachers expect you to pick up on this information naturally.

1. 2/2 or 2/4 – The accent is on beat one. This is one reason why 2/2 is usually used for marches – the right foot is dominant when you’re marching along.
2. 3/4 – The accent is on beat one.
3. 4/4 – The accents are on beats one and three, with the accent on three being weaker. This is very evident in rock music, where the bass drum is on 1 and 3 and the snare is on 2 and 4. A higher sound is weaker in our subconscious minds. This is also why we clap on 2 and 4.
4. “Fast” 6/8 – Fast 6/8 is compound time, so there are two beats per measure. This would fall under the same rules as 2/2 or 2/4, where beat one gets the accent.
5. “Slow” 6/8 – Slow 6/8 is simple time, and you’re counting all 6 beats. The accent depends on the situation. Where are the slurs? What format are the arpeggios? Sometimes the accent is on 1 with sub-accents on 3 and 5. Sometimes the accent is on beat 1 with a sub-accent on 4. The accent pattern will be the same for the entire piece.

The Slur Accent

Whenever there’s a two-note slur, the first note should be louder than the second note (Trevor Wye explains this in his omnibus book.) This has been common practice since the Baroque period, and is still considered common practice today. The first note of the two-note slur is part of the melody and the second note is part of the harmony.

Going Off-Topic into Slurs in the Baroque Period

Original Baroque music generally didn’t have slurs marked. The slurs were up to the performer. The beginning note of any slur, whether it was two notes or larger, was considered the melody and the rest of the slur was considered harmony. This is also information I read in Trevor Wye’s Omnibus.

If you have an edited piece of music from which you’re working, the slurs are already marked. These can be changed if you wish, but you may decide that the editor is a very smart person who did their research and what they chose is the best for the piece.

If you’re working from unedited music, you get to decide if and when you want to add slurs to change up the melody. It calls for extra analyzation, but it can be fun. Baroque music was all about the improv.

Conclusion

Thank you for following me off-the-path into the land of Baroque slurs. They’re not technically part of this subject but they’re related enough that I thought it would be worthwhile to mention them.

I hope this information helps you interpret your repertoire better in the future. I also hope this article clears up any mysteries that have cropped up around this subject. So much of learning music is one-on-one, teacher to student, and sometimes things are taught in a way that doesn’t make you realize there’s a rule about certain subjects. I’m all about clarity.