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5/4

I’m very fond of music in almost any form, from minimalistic experimental contemporary classical, via britpop, to world music crossovers, and anything in between. I like it complex, I like it simple.

I’ve realized this a few times before, but I must write it down now:

I worship songs written in 5/4 beats!

Some examples currently on my ipod:
- The Pyramid Song by Radiohead, one of my personal favorites from Radiohead
- Take Five by Dave Brubeck, the classic example of 5/4
- 5/4 by The Gorillaz, figures :)
- Soft Mistake by Lamb
- Hangin’ Tree by Queens of the Stone Age, I’m going to see this awesome band in 2 weeks!

I’m sure Sting did something in 5/4, I can’t find it though. He did I came to my senses in 7/4, which also pretty cool.

There must be more, share with me!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 19th, 2007 at 2:19 pm and is filed under music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “5/4”

  1. Erika Says:
    June 19th, 2007 at 3:31 pm

    Ja, is inderdaad leuk, ik ga even met je meedenken!

  2. Stefan Says:
    June 19th, 2007 at 4:39 pm

    We had some headaches with our band getting the 9/8 bridge in Black Hole Sun (Soundgarden) right. Without it the song is no big deal, though.

    In fact, there were lots of things that gave me headaches.

  3. nick Says:
    June 19th, 2007 at 8:57 pm

    Sting: I was brought to my senses.
    I’ve found the following here: http://www.answers.com/topic/time-signature?cat=entertainment

    …examples from the Western popular music tradition include “Money” (7/4), from the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, popular grunge band Soundgarden’s “Outshined” (7/4), Canadian rock band April Wine’s “Say Hello” (6/4), and popular alternative rock band Incubus’ “Make Yourself” (7/4 followed by two bars of 4/4). The jazz composition “Take Five”, written in 5/4 time, was one of a number of irregular-meter experiments of The Dave Brubeck Quartet, which also produced compositions in 11/4 (“Eleven Four”), 7/4 (“Unsquare Dance”), and 9/8 (“Blue Rondo a la Turk”), expressed as 2+2+2+3/8, this last being a good example of a work in a signature which, despite appearing merely compound triple, is actually more complex.

  4. Ineke Says:
    June 19th, 2007 at 11:19 pm

    Zal ik het eens in de groep gooien bij mijn componistjes? Weten hier vast hele leuke dingen over te vertellen :-)

  5. rico Says:
    June 19th, 2007 at 11:40 pm

    My guess is that contemporary composers will say that 5/4 is old-fashioned, “been there, done that”.

    Though I’m seriously curious what time signature contemporary pieces have!

  6. Renske Says:
    July 11th, 2007 at 10:53 am

    Oh God, by Jamie Cullum. Nice chords, too. That’s pretty contemporary, right?
    Check out this video on youtube http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lmyrvZ-Qt3s.

  7. rico Says:
    July 12th, 2007 at 9:41 am

    Very nice indeed!

  8. rico Says:
    July 12th, 2007 at 9:42 am

    And I meant contemporary classical pieces :)

  9. renske Says:
    July 12th, 2007 at 12:31 pm

    My mistake ;)

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