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A rhythmic device where two groups of three beats are reinterpreted as three groups of two, or vice versa. The ratio is 3:2.
Hemiola creates rhythmic ambiguity by regrouping beats against the barline. In 3/4, two bars normally divide 3 + 3; a hemiola accents them 2 + 2 + 2, so for a moment the music moves in 3/2. Baroque composers used it to broaden the approach to a cadence; Brahms made it a signature, letting it cloud the meter for whole phrases. Use it to energize a cadence or unsettle a steady triple pulse.
Schumann, Symphony No. 3 (“Rhenish”), first movement: the opening theme, written in 3/4, carries its long notes across the barlines so that it is heard in broad two-beat groups — a hemiola that makes the music sound as if it were in 3/2.
Hemiola is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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