The rhythmic figure in the dramatic flourish part of Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo à la Turk"

bit of a music dork question, please bear with me. i was listening to some Zelda soundtrack music on the radio and this bit stuck out to me. 7:14 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSpzR-sHoE4
The Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony Music - Twilight Princess Symphonic Movement

i thought to myself, "where have i heard this before?" and it occurred to me that it was in Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo à la Turk." you can hear it at 1:39 here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9GgmGLPbWU

the music notation for the brubeck piece, which is in 9/8 time, looks like this:
https://i.imgur.com/Isrft3y.png

my question is, have you heard this rhythmic figure anywhere else? and did it emerge in the Brubeck piece, or is it a nod to an older classical piece that both these compositions are referencing separately?

thanks for any thoughts you might have

That particular bit is just a bar of 3/4, right? I don't know the reference but it feels like a classical quote within the Brubeck tune, curious if anyone has the ID.

yeah, i think the duplets give those bars a 3/4 feel, but it's easily transplanted to a 3/4 context, as the zelda piece shows (where the duplets become eighth notes and the eighth notes become triplets, if that makes sense)

it's the kind of thing that would work well in a rock context, in fact i'm almost sure it's been done, but nothing comes to mind.

I found a book about Time Out that goes into great detail about the musical composition of "Blue Rondo a la Turk," but I don't see anything about that section (which the author calls "segment nine") being a quote of something else.

thanks! that's very interesting

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG6HC4SisTQ

for some reaosn it makes me think of Bolero, particularly towards the end of that piece

kind of reminds me of "the augurs of spring," movement 2 of "the rite of spring," in the rhythm, tho i believe that one is notated as accented triplets against 2/4 time

Interesting that these two figures are mathematically the same— although Brubeck’s triple-time digressions after a couple of flourishes buries the lede.

“Augurs Of Spring” analog is otm. I observe a lot of subliminal influences in certain industry-orchestral writing— note that the Zelda recording quickly moves into a Mussorgsky nod immediately after this Stravinsky nod

I am a classical idiot and don't feel qualified to comment on it, but last night I looked up a bunch of Mussorgsky pieces because that's what it made me think of! Also was dipping into Khachaturian and Stravinsky to see if I could spot the lick.

thanks, all. time to cue up some Mussorgsky and Stravinsky

russian classical flourish definitely what it feels like. relistened to shostakovich's 5th where i thought it might lurk in the 2nd movement, but no; and then i thought of rachmaninoff's 2nd when it starts into the pseudo-stride section, but again nothing.

the coda of One Summer Day from Spirited Away, a similar figure pops up briefly at about 4.27 here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=smn0HOvwoZ8

nice find