It is an interesting coincidence that twelve bars of four-four music has the same total number of beats as sixteen bars of three-four music.
12 x 4 = 16 x 3 = 48
Apparently in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries there was a "competition" between three-four and four-four music. Each music had it owns type of lyric and dance that was popular with the devotees. I remember hearing stories about fights in taverns between the different factions seeking to impose one type of music, or the other, on the audience and the entertainers.
This antipathy has largely been forgotten in the present day. Perhaps the invention and introduction of the twelve bar blues was the solution? Traditionally most music stanzas are eight or sixteen bars (i.e. measures) long.
According to W. C. Handy (The "father of the blues") all blues songs descend from one peculiar song that was popular with Sharecroppers in the American South in the 1870's and 1880's. As itinerant musicians would learn and carry this song to different labor camps, they would add verses of their own creation. In time, so many verses were added to so many different versions of the original song that they all became unique songs in their own right.
It is difficult to follow the threads of custom through the tapestry of history, but it is fascinating to try. Nevertheless it is an interesting coincidence that:
12 x 4 = 16 x 3 = 48
You could theoretically write two different songs, one in three-four and one in four-four, that could both be played together at the same time and harmonize with each other and yet still be unique individual songs. Wouldn't THAT be fun? But when you were done, would it still be the Blues?
copyright (c) 2016
William Schaeffer
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