Almost all the music we normally hear has a regular rhythm or pulse, usually in a repeated pattern of two, three or four beats. Most pop and rock, the majority of classical music, every march, much world music: all four beats. “Triple time”, three beats to the bar, is also common, familiar from waltzes, songs such as Bob Dylan’s “The Times They Are A-Changin”, or popular classics like the slow movement of Bach’s concerto for two violins or the Chorus of Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco.
But some music doesn’t fit those common patterns. Gregorian chant and religious chants from other cultures are generally in a free rhythm, with no regular pulse. And some music arranges itself into a regular five, seven or even eleven beat pattern! Music like this is said to be in an “asymmetric metre” (“metre” refers to the regular pattern of beats and accents in music; we notate this as “time signatures”; time signatures specify how many notes are in each repeated pattern – i.e. each “bar” or “measure” – and where the accents normally fall). I first became aware of asymmetric metres as a teenager when I heard Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony, with its second movement that sounds like it wants to be a waltz but actually has an undanceable five beats to the bar. Later I discovered Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five”, a jazz take on the same idea, with the piece actually named after its metre. (At the end of this blog there are links to these and the other music examples mentioned here.)
But the real ear-opener for me was when, in my early 20’s, I discovered Greek music by composers like Mikis Theodorakis (of Zorba the Greek fame) and Manos Hadjidakis. In Greek music, five beats to the bar is only one of many possibilities – songs and instrumental pieces may be in five to the bar, seven to the bar, and various other asymmetrical metres, and there may even be asymmetry on a higher level, with a group of several bars in the same metre regularly followed by one in a different metre (more on this below).
Here I want to pause for a moment. When I say “seven to the bar” I mean music written with a time signature of 7/8. This means there are seven short notes (“quavers” or “eighth notes”) in each bar. However, when you actually hear a piece in 7/8 time, you don’t normally hear seven beats: you’re likely to hear just three beats per bar, with one beat a bit longer than the others. The seven quavers (eighth notes) are grouped together in the pattern 3 + 2 + 2, with the first quaver of each group accented more than the others, and it’s the first quaver of each group you hear as the beat. (So in fact, if you want to be mathematical about it, in 7/8 time the first beat is 50% longer than the other two.)
What does this sound like? Listen to the first few seconds of this: (from my Concerto for Harpsichord or Piano) or this: (from my Clarinet Concerto). That tune from my Clarinet Concerto is in Greek style and might actually be a Greek folk melody – I wrote it down many years ago amongst various original ideas and neglected to make a note of whether I’d made it up or heard it somewhere. Either way, my early exposure to Greek music has obviously influenced my own. (For a definitely Greek song in 7/8 time, see below.)
In (true) Greek music, apart from 5 or 7 to the bar, you can also find other asymmetrical patterns, such as 9/8 with the nine quavers (eighth notes) grouped in a 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 pattern. Normally in 9/8 time the quavers are grouped 3 + 3 + 3, and you hear a regular three beats to the bar, but with the asymmetrical pattern of 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 there are four beats, the last one 50% longer than the others. (If you think this must surely sound clumsy or clunky, listen to the catchy “Lavrion” by Hadjidakis – link below.) You may even encounter in a Greek song this same asymmetrical 9/8 pattern followed by a section in 7/8 with occasional bars of 11/8 (the equally catchy “Ypomoni” by Stavros Xarhakos – link below).
11/8 might sound in theory like it would be too tricky or complex for the ear to follow, and in theory I would probably agree! However, when you listen to music in 11/8 time you don’t count 11 short notes in each bar, you just hear the beats. You may notice that some beats seem to be longer than others, or you may just hear what sound like a lot of syncopations (more below on syncopation). The first half of this clip is in 11/8: (another part of my Concerto for Harpsichord or Piano). I like to think this comes across as rhythmically catchy and engaging – though I would not like to try to dance to it! It’s quite complex on paper, with the quavers sometimes grouped 3 + 2 + 3 + 3 (four beats to the bar) and sometimes 2 + 3 + 2 + 2 + 2 (five beats to the bar), but there is no way I expect anyone to work this out or count the notes, I just want the rhythms to be enjoyed for their own sake. (You may think I was trying to be clever in writing this, but when I’m composing I mainly work with ideas that come up from the subconscious, and that is just what came up one day. My subconscious often surprises me.)
The thought of trying to dance to asymmetric metres reminds me that Greeks do often dance to their traditional music – does anyone know if they can dance to music with metres like this, and if so, how?
Another “fascinating rhythm” (metrical pattern) in Greek music is a recurring pattern of three bars of 4/4 followed by one of 6/4 – those extra two beats at the end of each phrase wonderfully tripping up the mind that expects regularity and predictability. (Question: does this ever trip up Greek people, or are they used to it? Can they dance to this?) Here the individual bars are not actually in asymmetric metres, and the sense of asymmetry is on a higher level, the level of phrases. (See Theodorakis’s “Vrexi stin ftoxo gitonia” – link below.)
The song “Fascinatin’ Rhythm” by George Gershwin, by the way, is in a simple 4 beats to the bar – what makes it “fascinatin'” are the catchy syncopations. Syncopations are off-beat accents, where the melody seems to be out of sync with the basic steady 4-beat pulse. Syncopation is not the same as asymmetry, but music in asymmetric metres often sounds as if it’s syncopated (as in my 11/8 example above). From the listener’s point of view, the main difference is that in syncopated music the off-beat accents often fall in different places in different bars and are not present in every bar, whereas in asymmetric metres the seemingly off-beat accents are quite regular – or, to put it another way, the accents are not off-beat at all, they are on the beat, it’s just that the beats are not all the same length. Syncopations are everywhere in popular music but are also common in music from the middle ages onwards (see the example from Handel below).
There is one final catchy metrical or rhythmical device I want to mention. When music has 6 quavers (eighth notes) in each bar there are two basic possibilities: either the quavers are grouped 2 + 2 + 2, so that you hear three beats to the bar (i.e. triple time, waltz time, written with the time signature 3/4), or the quavers are grouped 3 + 3, so that you hear two beats to the bar (the time signature for this is 6/8). 6/8 time is fairly common; my Siciliano is an example: . However, there is some music in which, rather than keeping the same pattern throughout, bars of 6/8 and 3/4 alternate. In other words, every bar has 6 quavers, but in some bars they are grouped 3 + 3 and in others 2 + 2 + 2. What you hear is alternating bars of two and three beats, with the beats in the 2-beat bars 50% longer than the beats in the 3-beat bars. This is called hemiola. It’s fairly common in renaissance and baroque music, where often you’ll find a bar or two in triple time (3/4) at the end of a phrase that is otherwise in 6/8. There is some hemiola in my Pan and Selene (at 11″ in this clip): . But the best-known and clearest example of hemiola – it’s really the main feature of this song – is Leonard Bernstein’s “America” from West Side Story.
I want to finish this blog with a brief apology. In my first blog I promised this one would be about melody. Obviously it’s not. However, I can now promise definitively that the next one, titled “Tuneful?”, will look at melodies, tunes, what they are, and what makes them memorable.
Musical examples:
5 beats to the bar:
Tchaikovsky: 6th Symphony, second movement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvEzdij0dlk)
Dave Brubeck: “Take Five”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHdU5sHigYQ
Theodorakis: “Hartaetoi” (“The Kites”): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvCyidS323E
Other patterns:
(7/8): Hadjidakis: “Little Ball of Thread” from The Blood Wedding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVtb239EHeI
(9/8 = 2 + 2 + 2 + 3): Hadjidakis: “Lavrion”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QuCrr1FTRNE
(9/8 = 2 + 2 + 2 + 3 then 7/8 and 11/8): Xarhakos: “Ypomoni”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaNtJJZHLe0
(three bars of 4/4 followed regularly by one bar of 6/4): Theodorakis: “Vrexi stin ftoxo gitonia”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fp0gafEyf8 (and many other Greek songs)
Asymmetrical metres are rare in pop or rock music; however, Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells starts with a repeated pattern of three bars of 7/8 followed by one of 9/8: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYmRA45BZmc
Syncopation:
George Gershwin: “Fascinatin’ Rhythm”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRSmEMc8vvA
Handel: “Hornpipe” from Water Music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h4mAceHmrI
Hemiola:
(Renaissance example:) Robert Ballard: Courante: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cf4eYIAEv8
Leonard Bernstein: “America” from West Side Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSKk-cvblc
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