The Lombard rhythm or Scotch snap is a

syncopated In music, syncopation is a variety of rhythms played together to make a piece of music, making part or all of a tune or piece of music off-beat (music), off-beat. More simply, syncopation is "a disturbance or interruption of the regular flow of ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

in which a short, accented note is followed by a longer one. This reverses the pattern normally associated with dotted notes or '' notes inégales'', in which the longer value precedes the shorter. In

Baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

, a Lombard rhythm consists of a stressed

sixteenth note Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest. Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together. In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note ( American) or semiquaver (British) is a note played for half the d ...

, or semiquaver, followed by a dotted

eighth note 180px, Figure 1. An eighth note with stem extending up, an eighth note with stem extending down, and an eighth rest. 180px, Figure 2. Four eighth notes beamed together. An eighth note ( American) or a quaver ( British) is a musical note pla ...

, or dotted quaver. Baroque composers often implemented these rhythms. For instance, Johann Georg Pisendel utilized Lombard rhythms within the largo and allegro sections of his sonata for Violin Solo in A Minor.

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (8 March 1714 – 14 December 1788), also formerly spelled Karl Philipp Emmanuel Bach, and commonly abbreviated C. P. E. Bach, was a German composer and musician of the Baroque and Classical period. He was the fifth ch ...

included dotted rhythms within certain excerpts of his concerto for

flute The flute is a member of a family of musical instruments in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, producing sound with a vibrating column of air. Flutes produce sound when the player's air flows across an opening. In th ...

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

, and keyboard. Not only did Baroque performers and composers such as

Johann Joachim Quantz Johann Joachim Quantz (; 30 January 1697 – 12 July 1773) was a German composer, flute, flutist and flute maker of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. Much of his professional career was spent in the court of Frederick the Great, where he s ...

, introduce these uneven rhythms in their studies and pedagogy, but

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

also possesses these rhythms which are in the very essence of its style. In

Scottish country dance Scottish country dance (SCD) is the distinctively Scottish form of country dance, itself a form of social dance involving groups of couples of dancers tracing progressive patterns. A dance consists of a sequence of figures. These dances are ...

s, the Scotch snap (or Scots snap) is a prominent feature of the strathspey. Due to the immigration of Scots to

Appalachia Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...

, elements of Scottish music such as the Lombard rhythm have been appropriated into popular music forms of the 20th and 21st century. In modern North American pop and

rap music Rapping (also rhyming, flowing, spitting, emceeing, or MCing) is an artistic form of vocal delivery and emotive expression that incorporates "rhyme, rhythmic speech, and ommonlystreet vernacular". It is usually performed over a backing ...

, the Lombard rhythm is very common; recent releases by

Post Malone Austin Richard Post (born July 4, 1995), known professionally as Post Malone, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, and actor. His music blends various genres including hip-hop, Pop music, pop, Contemporary R&B, R&B, Tra ...

Cardi B Belcalis Marlenis Cephus (; born October 11, 1992), known professionally as Cardi B, is an American rapper. Noted for her unfiltered public image and lyrics, Cardi B is one of the most successful female rappers. From 2015 to early 2017, she ga ...

, and

Ariana Grande Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Regarded as a pop icon and an influential figure in popular music, Grande is known for her four-octave vocal range, which extends into the whistle re ...

feature the Scotch snap. Grande's song ‘ 7 Rings’ was the subject of controversy surrounding this rhythm, wherein several hip-hop artists ( Princess Nokia and

Soulja Boy DeAndre Cortez Way (born July 28, 1990), known professionally as Soulja Boy (formerly Soulja Boy Tell 'Em), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. He rose to prominence with his self-released 2007 debut single, "Crank That ...

) who had used the rhythm in an iconic fashion raised accusations of plagiarism.

References

Babitz, Sol. “A Problem of Rhythm in Baroque Music.” The Musical Quarterly 38, no. 4 (October 1952): 533–565. https://www.jstor.org/stable/740138 Fuller, David. “Notes inégales (Fr.: ‘unequal notes’),” Grove Music Online (January 2001) https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.20126 Gábor, Elod and Ignác-Csaba FILIP. “Johann Georg Pisendel: Sonata for Violin Solo in A Minor.” Series VIII: Performing Arts 12, no. 61 (2019): pp. 72–76. https://doi.org/10.31926/but.pa.2019.12.61.30 Miller, Leta. “C.P.E. Bach’s Instrumental ‘Recompositions’: Revisions or Alternatives?” Current Musicology 59, (1995) p. 29.

References

Further reading