Lombard rhythm

The Lombard rhythm is a special form of punctuation (Music), in which the dotted note takes the second, less stressed point of the central group.

While in a usual first dotting the longer and shorter then the note will sound (see " Al -le " in the Christmas song " Every year " ), it behaves just the opposite in a so-called Lombard rhythm. It is therefore, for example, only a sixteenth note and then a dotted eighth.

Quantz teaches that "one of two or three short notes that with stop short maketh, , and cause behind the continuous one Punct ".

This reverse dotting gives a liveliness and lightness, as in WA Mozart's String Quartet in D Minor, K. 421: In the middle section ( trio ) of the minuet swings the melody of the first violin in the Lombard rhythm light as a feather in the air.

Trio of KV 421? / I

The Lombard rhythm is to distinguish in the notation of the syncope hardly. In the embodiment, however, the Lombard rhythm the second, longer note remains unstressed and light. When syncope, however, they will also receive an accent.

• Beat and rhythm