Songs with weird Time Signatures/Meter Changes??

[f13overture]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 6:31pm

Can anyone think of any broadway songs with weird time signatures or meter changes? The sadist in me wants to make an exercise playlist and see what happens while jogging to it...

The songs I thought of so far:
America from WSS (2/4, 3/4 pattern)
Superboy and the Invisible Girl from N2N (11/
Life of the Party from Lippa's Wild Party (2/4, 4/4, ?? 3/4?)
The Five-Fifteen from Grey Gardens (there's a random 7/8 bar in there)
Thank Goodness/I Couldn't Be Happier from Wicked (5/8,2/4 pattern?)
Oh Happy We from Candide (4/4, 3/4)
Make Our Garden Grow from Candide (??)

I'm sure there's a bunch of Sondheim, but his stuff is usually so syncopated that I can't even tell if it's in 4/4. haha

[sparrman]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 7:18pm

"And the Money Kept Rolling In" from Evita is all in 7/8. Except on the Korean cast album, where they added that pesky "missing" beat!

[darquegk]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 7:18pm

It's not a Broadway song, but if you really want to hear some unusual tempo/meter changes, the most metrically-complicated popular song of all time is "Turn It On Again" by Genesis during its Phil Collins years.

It's a pop-rock song done with prog-rock technique. The time signature shifts drastically and rapidly throughout, but the most common is 13/4 (although technically, it's repeating bars of four measures: 4/4, then 2/4, then 4/4 then 3/4).

And yet it's catchy and easy to remember!

[leefowler]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 7:21pm

My favorite would be "West End Avenue", which has time changes almost every bar. Jogging to it might be dangerous, however.

[FANtomFollies]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 7:23pm

i remember playing the overture to 'Candide' in band in high school, it had time changes and key changes EVERYWHERE!

[MusicalBoy]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 7:29pm

If anyone's familiar with the score to Matilda,

'The Hammer' as sung by Miss Trunchbull in the first act begins in 5/4 if I'm not mistaken before moving to 3/4 and then 4/4. Great song, though.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 7:35pm

I'm not a musician but it's my understanding that each song in A Little Night Music is in a different time signature based on the 3/4 time signature of the waltz, some very unusual like 12/8.

(Hoping someone with more musical knowledge can elucidate...)

[Jon]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 7:44pm

"Everything's Alright" from Jesus Christ Superstar is in 5/4.

Several songs from Light in The Piazza, incluting "Aiutami" and "This is Love to Me" have strange time signatures that are nearly impossible to count.

[TRiceFan]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 8:06pm

Skimbleshanks, the
Railway cat, the
cat of the railway train!
Alternates 6/8 and 7/8. Pain...

[broadwaybabytn]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 9:19pm

The entire score of ADDING MACHINE is in odd, swiftly changing time signatures.

Posted: 8/16/12 at 9:34pm

Most of the Avenue q Score

[f13overture]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 10:03pm

Definitely adding West End Avenue to the list!! I'll let you know how the aftermath of jogging with it turns out
Thanks for some great suggestions - will check some of these out.

Sparrman, that's hilarious about the Korean Evita album!!

[jv92]

Posted: 8/16/12 at 10:03pm

PJ, 12/8 isn't that weird of a meter. It isn't in the 3/4 family, though, which makes it seem out of place in NIGHT MUSIC for some people. (The song that uses the meter is "Send in the Clowns", of course, with some variation to 9/8.)

The score for GREY GARDENS has a lot of weird meter changes, and the song "Jerry Likes My Corn" is mostly in 7/4 time.

[michellek45]

Posted: 8/17/12 at 8:20pm

f13overture, I believe America alternates back and forth between 6/8 and 3/4, unless you're talking about the intro, which is 4/4. Another song that does that is Stranger to the Rain. Alternating between 6/8 and 3/4 for emphasis isn't all that uncommon.

Lion Tamer from the Magic Show is 7/4, which plays in the song as a pattern of 3/4 and 4/4.

There Will Be a Miracle from See What I Wanna See is mostly 4/4 but the last couple of bars are in 6/8.

[center]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 12:02pm

"The Schmuel Song" from "The Last Five Years" is all over the place!

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 12:16pm

Pretty Women from Sweeney Todd alternates between 4/8, 5/8 and 6/8.

From the same musical, The Judge's Johanna being in 3/4 has the odd bar of 9/8 thrown in having an almost hemiola-like effect.

Updated On: 8/18/12 at 12:16 PM

[elphaba.scares.me]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 3:11pm

Speaking of "The Last Five Years", what about the song Jamie sings right after the duet? Is it called "Resist Temptation"? Always thought that one would be a nightmare for a singer to learn, but haven't ever seen it on the page.

A lot of the younger composers write in crazy shifting time signatures. Like, suddenly, there's a 12/8 bar out of nowhere. Sometimes I think they do it just to be fancy...but maybe they just play it into Finale and the software adjusts it.

I think the song from Piazza that Fabrizio's....sister-in-law sings? Whoever Sarah Uriarte Berry played on Broadway. I remember that one being kind of nutty in terms of counting.

[elphaba.scares.me]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 3:11pm

Double post. Sorry, server error. Updated On: 8/18/12 at 03:11 PM

[trentsketch]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 3:42pm

Candide is nothing without meter changes. Especially the overture. I remember having a long discussion with my high school band director when he was considering pieces for the full band (beginners and all) to play for a competition. I fought against the Candide overture because of the meter changes. I lost the battle and the band lost the beat real quick.

Jason Robert Brown has some funky stuff going on in Songs for a New World. I remember getting really frustrated when a student wanted to do Just One Step for a revue show. And then another teacher in the school convinced a group of students to do A Little More Homework from 13 and, I don't care what the sheet music says, that is not really in 4/4.

Spelling Bee gets a little weird, too. The I Love You Song is written in the commercial printing in one time signature but it functionally switches meter and even starts to add in some hemiola once the tempo picks up. I'm Not That Smart has that odd 3/4 section going on when the melody is still working in 4/4.

[jv92]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 3:45pm

I remember hearing Sondheim say something like changing a meter for no reason in the middle of a normal song is somewhat perverse. (In PASSION and SWEENEY TODD, it's okay, because the people sing at great lengths and the music needs variation, but who needs a 7/4 bar in the middle of "Losing My Mind" or "Good Thing Going?")

I think in the case of Adam Guettel, whose music falls between "regular" musical theater songs and art songs, it's okay. And in Bill Finn's case, the songs are so weird and unique that the metric shifts don't seem to bother me-- like in something like "Dwight Ave." from ELEGIES. Also, these songs extend the typical 32 or 36 bar format. A lot of new theater composers write extended musical sequences these days.

But if you're writing a 32 bar song, I have to agree with Sondheim. If it's really necessary, as I think it is in "Send in the Clowns", so be it. It's fine, and it works. But otherwise, it's just showing off.


Updated On: 8/18/12 at 03:45 PM

[hyperbole_and_a_half]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 5:35pm

One of my favorites is from the title song from Merrily We Roll Along. The whole song is about losing track of the moments that lead up to where you are now, so I always thought it was clever for Sondheim to literally lose a (half) beat with 7/8 measures out of nowhere and pair them with the lyrics "stay on the track/never look back".

My least favorite composer for this sort of thing, though, is Adam Guettel. I was rehearsal accompanist for Floyd Collins and it's like having a seizure at the piano. Beautiful music, but ugh.

[ClapYo'Hands]

Posted: 8/18/12 at 7:49pm

But Sondheim has also said that there's no point in extra beats if you don't want them; so if you have a song in 4/4 and have a 3/4 or 2/4 bar at the end of the phrase it's ok because you're cutting pointless beats.

Also, by that reckoning jv92, how do you explain the signature change in Sweeney Todd's Johanna? Updated On: 8/18/12 at 07:49 PM

[ErinDillyFan]

Posted: 8/19/12 at 4:08pm

The Candide overture as mentioned has over a hundred time changes. But, in reality most of it is in 7/2 (or 7/4), but written as a repeating pattern of 2/2, 2/2, 3/2.

Can't believe no has mentioned the master of complicated time signatures Burt Bacharach. Check out Promises, Promises.