# Do you have a favourite time signature?



## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

A stupid question, I know, but I'm serious. Is there a time signature that catches your attention more than others?

I may well just be asking this because I'm in a very bright mood at the moment, and I've temporarily fallen in love with 2/4 because Marches are just so damn fun! Of course, not so far removed from 2/4 is my other favourite, 6/8, which you may well know is because I can't get enough of the Tarantella.

5/4 is a curious one - tends to be quite evocative and engaging; especially ever since I listened to the second movement of Tchaikovsky's 6th.


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

I like 1/1


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

7/16 ftw!


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

If you want to mention something off the wall, you are _required_ to cite an example available on recordings.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

4/4. I'm boring.


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## Tapkaara (Apr 18, 2006)

4/4 is good. I am surely fascinated by 5/4, the meter of the Kalevala, Finland's national epic.


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## Jeremy Marchant (Mar 11, 2010)

(3+3+6)/8 as in _America _from _West side story_.
If I remember correctly, it's printed in 3/4 (not even 6/8), but it's so transparently not: an interesting example of the difference between what is written to aid comprehension and learning, and what is actually performed.

And Philip Glass, who is often criticised for repetition, you find actually has a deal of detail when you get your hands on the score. Eg, _Vessels _from _Koyaanisqatsi _alternates bars of (2+2+2)/6 and (3+3)/6.

Pat Metheny has a track on his album _Letter from home _which is certainly in 17 beat units (it's called _5-5-7 _which, sort of, gives a clue but it's so across the (dotted) barline that it can be hard to hear the individual 5 and 7 subbars). The previous (inevitably) brief track is called _45/8_, but I can't count quickly enough to verify that it is indeed in that time signature.


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## Klavierspieler (Jul 16, 2011)

Polednice said:


> If you want to mention something off the wall, you are _required_ to cite an example available on recordings.


Move to Bulgaria!


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Dodecaplex said:


> I like 1/1


Have you heard the scherzo to Borodin's 2nd Symphony? It's in 1/1 for a large part of it.

In general 3/4 would prove to be my favorite, because I love dance music (waltzes, mazurkas, etc.). But 7/8 takes the crown for originality. And snazz:


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## Dodecaplex (Oct 14, 2011)

Huilunsoittaja said:


> Have you heard the scherzo to Borodin's 2nd Symphony? It's in 1/1 for a large part of it.


That's exactly what I had in mind. Also, I've written a number of pieces in 1/1.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

Polednice said:


> ...
> I may well just be asking this because I'm in a very bright mood at the moment, and I've temporarily fallen in love with 2/4 because Marches are just so damn fun! Of course, not so far removed from 2/4 is my other favourite, 6/8, which you may well know is because I can't get enough of the Tarantella.
> ...


I'm not a musician, but I have also begun to like folkish-things with strong rhythm, esp. getting into guitar music of many kinds lately. Eg. Rodrigo, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and esp. *Boccherini's* _Guitar Quintet #4_, which is called the _Fandango_ (after it's final movement), a Spanish form which I'm sure has a time signature attached, I'll have to dig out the cd notes which might mention that, it makes me move my body and the repetition is akin to an early form of minimalism...


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## clavichorder (May 2, 2011)

Its hard to pick a favorite for me on this one. Sometimes I don't know the time signature of a piece till I've seen the score.

There is one Alkan piece for piano that is written with two time signatures, one for the right hand and one for the left!


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## DavidMahler (Dec 28, 2009)

i feel like 3/4 is a very intimate time signature. But I like 7/128


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I like them all.

I think oddball time signatures are more apparent when used in pop or rock (to our modern ears) because they are not as expected. When Brahms uses polyrhythms it doesn't seem as startling to me as this weird corny little piece "Seven is a Jolly Good Time" which is only partly in seven time and partly in several times I think. (People allergic to _cheese _should avoid this link. You have been warned.)

Then again maybe Brahms was just smoother and subtler at it.


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## Kopachris (May 31, 2010)

I do like the 5/4 from Tchaikovsky's sixth symphony, but my favorite is probably 3/4.


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## Crystal (Aug 8, 2017)

Maybe 3/4. 5/4 is crazy.


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## Joe B (Aug 10, 2017)

Jeremy Marchant said:


> (3+3+6)/8 as in _America _from _West side story_.
> If I remember correctly, it's printed in 3/4 (not even 6/8), but it's so transparently not: an interesting example of the difference between what is written to aid comprehension and learning, and what is actually performed.
> 
> And Philip Glass, who is often criticised for repetition, you find actually has a deal of detail when you get your hands on the score. Eg, _Vessels _from _Koyaanisqatsi _alternates bars of (2+2+2)/6 and (3+3)/6.
> ...


How about Pat Metheny's "First Circle." I believe the song starts with a time signature of 11/8. Saw them in New London, CT (Garde Arts Theater...a small venue) two weeks before they went into the studio to record "Still Life Talking." After playing the tracks from "First Circle", Pat asked if we, the audience, minded if the group played the new music to get in some additional practice. Everyone went wild.






I love this tune. It is an excellent track for auditioning a sound system.


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## Omicron9 (Oct 13, 2016)

I have a deep affinity for all odd meters (5/4, 9/8, etc.). What I truly love is not just odd meters, but shifting and changing meters.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

12/8

Special to Beethoven, so special to me.


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## Kajmanen (Jun 30, 2017)

Manxfeeder said:


> 4/4. I'm boring.


Techno*?


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## johankillen (Sep 20, 2015)

9/8
But that's more common in the progressive rock music


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