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This is a list of musical compositions or pieces of music that have unusual time signatures. "Unusual" is here defined to be any time signature other than simple time signatures with top numerals of 2, 3, or 4 and bottom numerals of 2, 4, or 8, and compound time signatures with top numerals of 6, 9, or 12 and bottom numerals 4, 8, or 16.
Most time signatures consist of two numerals, one stacked above the other: The lower numeral indicates the note value that the signature is counting. This number is always a power of 2 (unless the time signature is irrational), usually 2, 4 or 8, but less often 16 is also used, usually in Baroque music. 2 corresponds to the half note (minim), 4 to the quarter note (crotchet), 8 to the eighth ...
For example, L'anguille and La Pantomime have a 4/2 time signature, but is actually in 2/4. Is this just a misprint, or perhaps is it possibly something else? A similar situation occurs in the first edition of L'ausonienne, with 8/4 for 4/8. And 8/3 for Carnival from Mxnxstrxdxsx!
With regards to which time signatures are unusual, the Time signature article already mentions a number of time signatures (3/4, 4/4, 6/8 et al.) as 'most common', leading to the implication that other time sigs are unusual. Moreover, a number of time signatures is explicitly mentioned as being unusual afterwards, again without sourcing.
8 time signature to be used for an irregular, or "additive" metrical pattern, such as groupings of 3 + 3 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 + 3 + 2 eighth notes. Septuple meter can also be notated by using regularly alternating bars of triple and duple or quadruple meters, for example 4
Sometimes a piece is written with multiple time signatures simultaneously. For example, it might specify 4/4 2/4 3/4 5/4, meaning that the length of measures is irregular and can be 4, 2, 3 or 5 quarter-notes. The time signature of the first measure is always specified first, and the others are placed in increasing order of length. Usually, the ...
Usually, such time signatures are mutually prime, e.g., 4 4 and 3 8, and so have no common divisors. Thus the change of the basic metre decisively alters the numerical content of the beat, but the minimal denominator (1 8 when 4 4 changes to 3 8; 1 16 when, e.g., 5 8 changes to 7 16, etc.) remains constant in duration. [5]
In the case of DT's "Wait for Sleep" I removed it from "41/8" with the following comment: Adding 3 meas. of 5/8, 1 of 4/8, 3 of 6/8 and another of 4/8 into 41/8 isn't how a song's time signature is determined. This song has shifting time sigs, it's not one big long time sig.