Pieces with uncommon metrics

[quasimodo]

Can you list pieces you know that have a bizarre metric ?

For example there's Rachmaninoff's Etude Tableau Op.33 N.1 (I love that piece !!!) which changes from 4/4 to 5/4, 2/4, 3/4, 6/4.

Or Satie's Gnossienne N.1 which has no metric signature at all nor bar lines ...

Any other suggestions ?

[fnork]

listen to shostakovich fugue in Db major (I believe) op 87, it's one of the most crazy pieces I've ever heard. It changes metre in basically every metre, and is based on an 11-tone motif! And the speed is quite insane too. Just reading the sheet music while listening to it is an adventure.

[quasimodo]

listen to shostakovich fugue in Db major (I believe) op 87, it's one of the most crazy pieces I've ever heard. It changes metre in basically every metre, and is based on an 11-tone motif! And the speed is quite insane too. Just reading the sheet music while listening to it is an adventure.

Oh well I know that one, but I just didn't ever look at the score. Now I did, OMG  . It's just amazing that some people can play "that" !!! Keith Jarret is actually a great pianist, if anyone still doubted it...

[Etude]

• Chopin's first prelude has a 2/8 metre which is not seen a lot.
                                                                              
       
• Alkan's 'Comme le vent' is in 2/16 I think.
                             

                             
                             

                              
                             



• Prokofiev seventh sonata 3rd movement is in 7/8
                             

                             
                             
                             


• Promenade from Pictures at an Exhibition alternates 5/4 with 6/4
                                                            
                                                         
                             



• Penderecki's Threnody doesn't even have a beat.  The durations of notes or sections are indicated at the bottom of the system in seconds, though this isn't for piano.
                                                                                                                                                            

[BoliverAllmon]

shostakovich's prelude 14 op. 87 is in 7/8 and real slow. Real hard to get a metric feeling in it. His third Aphorism has no bar lines. Ummm...I have an African piece (can't think of the name of the top of my head) it is in 19/8. real good rhythmn. My comp teacher recently wrote a band piece in 12/8 with the grouping as 2,2,3,3,2. real cool

[allchopin]

Speaking of band, look at almost all works by Holsinger - he is famous for alternating between 4/4,3/4,5/4,6/8,3/8 ... you name it.  Once the playing is down, add marching! 

[pianomann1984]

The Nocturne at the centre of Chopin's 1st Sonata is in 5/4.  Most of Takemitsu's music, and alot of Messiaen's contain no metre (especially the birdsong transcriptions!)

[Regulus Medtner]

The  first movement of Medtner's Night Wind sonata is in 15/8 (its brief introduction is in 5/4).

In his 3rd piano concerto, second movement (allegro molto sostenuto e misterioso) piano and orchestra have different metric signatures, the piano is in 3/4 against  2/4 of the orchestra.

[nomis]

The whole of Dave Brubeck's Time Out album.

[musik_man]

Scriabin's E minor prelude is in 15/8

In Close to the Edge by Yes, there's a section where the Bass plays in 6/4 while the melody continues in 12/8

In Supper's Ready by Genesis there's a section where the keyboard does a 4/4 solo over 9/8 accompaniment.

[beethoartok]

Some of Ginastera pieces shift every single measure... just go find some contemporary pieces. 

[BoliverAllmon]

listen to shostakovich fugue in Db major (I believe) op 87, it's one of the most crazy pieces I've ever heard. It changes metre in basically every metre, and is based on an 11-tone motif! And the speed is quite insane too. Just reading the sheet music while listening to it is an adventure.

how hard do you think that prelude and fugue is?

[thierry13]

In Close to the Edge by Yes, there's a section where the Bass plays in 6/4 while the melody continues in 12/8

If you analise this, you would see those two timings are the same but doubled, so it isn't more complicated. It's the same that 2/2 and 4/4, etc.

[BoliverAllmon]

If you analise this, you would see those two timings are the same but doubled, so it isn't more complicated. It's the same that 2/2 and 4/4, etc.

just the accents are different. nothing crazy though.

[musik_man]

If you analise this, you would see those two timings are the same but doubled, so it isn't more complicated. It's the same that 2/2 and 4/4, etc.

Oops, I meant 4/2.  Since 12/8 reduces to 3/2, they only sync up every 6 measures.  It's a really cool effect and I wished more people used it.

[quasimodo]

Well actually I asked for piano solo pieces.

Anyway Iknow some Pat Metheny Group's songs which are titled their crazy metrics like 45-8 or 5-5-7 (which is two meausres 5/4 ad one 7/4).

[sonatainfsharp]

Check out the Excursion III by Barber.

[fnork]

how hard do you think that prelude and fugue is?

I'd have to take a look at the sheet music again to answer that. I remember that the prelude seemed quite easy, but the fugue is probably extremely hard to play. Wasn't it with 5 voices? hehe, with a motif like that, and with the constant metre change, and with the metronome marking, I do think it seems quite hard to learn  Especially memorizing it.

[steinwayguy]

I think Scriabin's Black Mass Sonata starts in 4/8?? I'm too lazy to look at the score.

I played a piece for drum corps written in 15/16

and I wrote a piece with bars in 13/2, 17/16, 29/32

[Daevren]

Scriabin 11/14 prelude  is in 14/15 or something if I remember correctly.

Alot of real jazz pieces have strange time signatures. Some non-western music is rhythmicly so complex using western time signatures is useless.

[pianomann1984]

I think Scriabin's Black Mass Sonata starts in 4/8??

Ach, what a fantastic piece!!!  I played it in an end of year piano assessment last year.  Never fails to force me to play at my best.  Great music!

[AvoidedCadence]

Someone mentioned Ginastera - I think his Suite de Danzas Criollas is one of the worst - in the last movement and coda sometimes the time signature does change every bar.  There's also one movement in 11/8 where the RH plays eight notes in groups of 2 and the LH in groups of three.  Took me a bit of time to figure out which notes to bring out - especially when he starts with imitation and such.  Highly recommend the piece.
 
Never played the D-flat Shostakovich but I played the g-sharp minor, which is in 5/4.  Basically gave up on trying to memorize it - although you do acquire hand memory pretty fast in some parts from that percussive chordal counterpoint, memorizing the rhythm and hand coordination is decently difficult.  Maybe I could have done it if I'd liked the piece more - I guess I'm just not sufficiently into the oddly metred, percussive, atonal fugues.

[BoliverAllmon]

I'd have to take a look at the sheet music again to answer that. I remember that the prelude seemed quite easy, but the fugue is probably extremely hard to play. Wasn't it with 5 voices? hehe, with a motif like that, and with the constant metre change, and with the metronome marking, I do think it seems quite hard to learn  Especially memorizing it.

only four voices, but both P&F are very fast.

[tariswerewolf]

My first piano sonata. The first movement changes meter (sometimes just the internal organization of the meter) quite frequently.

[porilo]

How about Frank Martin's Fantasy on Flamenco Rhythms?  Most of that is in 8/8, with 2 metronome markings at the beginning - crotchet=81 and dotted-crotchet=54 !!
Then there's his fourth prelude which doesn't have a time signature but counting the quaver beats from the beginning you have a different number in each bar, for example:

Bar 1 - 7/8
Bar 2 - 8/8
Bar 3 - 9/8
Bar 4 - 8/8
Bar 5 - 10/8
Bar 6 - 13/8
Bar 7 - 12/8
Bar 8 - 5/8
Bar 9 - 10/8

Prelude 8 also has some strange timings too. Most of it is in 18/16, but there are a few passages in 9/16 and 6/16 .

Gregory

[C-A]

Shostakovich 2nd Piano Concerto- 3rd movement
Alternate from 4/4 then 7/8, 4/4 then 7/8 and so on...

Chopin Nocturne in B-flat minor Op.9, no.1- 6/4
Chopin Mazurka in B-flat minor Op.24, no.4- Short, but very complicated structure:
A-B-A-C-D-A.
Chopin Waltz in A-flat Major Op.42- 3/4 time signature with an unusual structure:
After the trill, the right hand is in double time while the left in triple time.
Schubert's Impromptu in G-flat Major Op.90, no.3- 4/2

[rob47]

"Time on Display Shelves" by some japanese guy. Not Takemitsu but someone else...I was looking at the score the other day and I recall the time signature changing on many of the bars.

[bachmaninov]

Hmm.. Almost every work by Aaron Copland is diseased with uncommon metrics. Two piano duo's that I know of, Danza de Jalisco, and Danza Cubano, change metric every measure and are very confusing! And it is almost impossible to put together!