Music Fundamentals A Balanced Approach

• Any note value may be divided into triplets; the most common is the eighth note triplet. For all triplets, the
  combined value of the triplets is equal to the next larger note value.


• Triplets are used for short segments of music when the normal division into groups of two is changed
  momentarily to three. For an extended section using a division into groups of three, the music is usually
  written in compound meter.

Listen to your instructor play this excerpt from Claude Debussy’s “La Puerto del Vino” which uses eighth note
and thirty-second note triplets. Note the “courtesy” accidentals.

La Puerto del Vino (C. Debussy)

Notice Debussy’s designation “Mouvement de Habanera” at the beginning of the Prelude. Here, Debussy uses
the Habanera rhythm to accompany the melody. Ask your instructor to play the excerpt again, this time tapping
the following Habanera rhythm:

RHYTHM: COMPOUND METER EXPANDED

Sixteenth note triplet

Eighth note triplet

Quarter note triplet

Half note triplet

Triplet

division

hhh

qqq

qqq

qqq

3

3

3

3

Usual

division

qq

h h

qq

qq

Main note

value

h

q

e

ú

Eighth note triplet

Mouvement de Habenera

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