notes inégales

Unequal notes. The central performance practice of French Baroque music: pairs of written equal notes in certain contexts are performed with a long-short inequality, giving the music its characteristic lilt. The degree of inequality ranges from a gentle triplet feel (pointer) to a dotted rhythm, depending on tempo and style. Couperin and his contemporaries specified this practice in performance instructions but rarely notated the inequality explicitly. It applies primarily to conjunct motion (stepwise lines) in certain beat subdivisions.

Apply notes inégales judiciously: they apply to stepwise, conjunct passages in duple subdivisions, not to wide leaps, repeated notes, or passages marked \"croches égales\" (equal quavers). The inequality should feel natural, not mechanical. In slow movements, a gentle inequality is appropriate; in faster tempos, a sharper dotted quality may be fitting. When Couperin writes \"marquez les notes\" or \"pointez les notes,\" a more emphatic inequality is called for.