# Piano works in unusual time signatures



## hemidemisemiquaver (Apr 22, 2011)

To determine what I'm searching for, it's not the pieces where pianist plays, say, eleven notes per bar and violinist plays eight. I'm interested in compositions where one is supposed to play in different measures with different hands - like, if a time signature is 5/8, you're supposed to play 5 notes with your left hand and 8 with your right one... Well, you get the idea.

Any suggestions?


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## Huilunsoittaja (Apr 6, 2010)

Ayyyyy Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 III- Precipitato.

The time signature is rapid 7/8.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Hmm. Is that what Nancarrow does? (I'm not a musician)


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## Argus (Oct 16, 2009)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Hmm. Is that what Nancarrow does? (I'm not a musician)


That's who I came in here to suggest. Although it does require an automated machine to play.


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## hemidemisemiquaver (Apr 22, 2011)

Argus said:


> That's who I came in here to suggest. Although it does require an automated machine to play.


Yes, and it's the snag. I'm interested in works written for people even so... 


Huilunsoittaja said:


> Ayyyyy Prokofiev's Piano Sonata No. 7 III- Precipitato.
> 
> The time signature is rapid 7/8.


Thanks, I really liked that piece, but it's played in the same measure with both hands, as far as I understand. I'm talking about polymeter, like on King Crimson's _Discipline_. A lot of math rock bands use the scheme like when a guitarist plays 11/8 and a drummer plays 4/4 (for example), and what I'm interested in is the same stuff, but when one man (a pianist, currently) is intended to play in a similar manner, using polymeter. In this situation, a whole note one plays with a left hand lasts, say, 1.5 seconds, but a whole note played with a right lasts 2 seconds respectively. Pooh, I hope it's clarifying enough


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## petrarch (Apr 2, 2011)

Try Philip Glass' _Opening_ from _Glassworks_. There's a 3/2 ratio between the two hands.


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## Romantic Geek (Dec 25, 2009)

In Samuel Barber's Excursions, the third movement has for much of the piece a 7 to 8 ratio.


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## Pieck (Jan 12, 2011)

Romantic Geek said:


> In Samuel Barber's Excursions, the third movement has for much of the piece a 7 to 8 ratio.


That's good stuff!


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## GraemeG (Jun 30, 2009)

I don't understand what you're getting at. Are you talking about pieces written in two different time signatures at once? But surely the bar lines must be common? A bar of 4/4 and a bar of 11/8 don't 'meet'; in order to have any semblance of co-ordination the 11/8 bar must be played at a faster tempo than the 4/4...
There are plenty of examples of two times signatures running together; the end of Britten's Young Person's Guide has half the orchestra in 3/4 and the other half playing in 6/8, but again, the bars 'meet' at every bar line.
The Barber piece is in 4/4 above; the fact it goes into 'seventuplets' doesn't change the time-sig, even when the right hand is playing seventuplets against 8 quavers in the bass.

Or maybe my music theory is a little rusty...
GG


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## Stasou (Apr 23, 2011)

The classic example...Chopin Fantasie-Impromptu


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