Quintuplet and septuplet · Tuplets · Music theory
Quintuplets and septuplets are five and seven notes in the place of four. They are written with the value of those four: in a quarter note, with…
Quintuplet and septuplet
Quintuplets and septuplets are five and seven notes in the place of four. They are written with the value of those four: in a quarter note, with sixteenths. They cannot be split into equal parts of two or three, so they are played in a single impulse, spread evenly up to the next beat.
Long groups
In Romantic music, above all Chopin, there are very long groups, of nine, eleven or more notes over a regular accompaniment. They need not be measured with mathematical exactness: they are played like an ornament filling the space, taking care to arrive in time for the next note.
A real quintuplet, by contrast, is measured. It can be practiced by grouping 2+3 or 3+2, depending on how the music wants it accented, until it sounds even.