David_
Facepalmist
Watching the Rush documentary, Beyond the Lighted Stage, a few years ago, they showed some music reviews that were critical of Rush's music. One of the reasons, was that they change time signatures during a song.
Today, I was looking up the history of Pink Floyd's Mother, and Wikipedia had this to say:
Mother is 5:32 in length. The majority of the song is in G Major, though the chorus is predominantly a plagal cadence in C Major. The song is notable for its varied use of time signatures, such as 5/8 and 9/8.[4] Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason found these time-signature changes difficult to learn, and, with the band recording on a very tight schedule, ceded the drumming duties to session drummer Jeff Porcaro.[5]
The song begins quietly with solo voice and a single acoustic guitar, and gradually expands its instrumentation to include, by the song's end, reed organ, piano, drums, electric bass, and electric guitar. The song has a minimal introduction, consisting only of a sharp inhalation and rapid exhalation before the first verses are sung by Roger Waters. The verse starts with one measure of 5/8, while most of it 4/4, or "common time".[citation needed] It also features one measure of 6/8.
The chorus, sung by David Gilmour starts out on two measures of 4/4 before going into 6/8 (or "compound duple meter") for most of the chorus, in a narrative response to the first set of lyrics. There is also one measure of 9/8. Then a guitar solo follows over a chord progression in 4/4 time. Waters sings another verse, which is once more followed by Gilmour's chorus (with different lyrics). Finally, the song concludes with an arrangement stripped back down to one acoustic guitar and Waters's voice, and a ritardando in which Waters sings, "Mother did it need to be so high?", a reference to the metaphorical wall constructed by the character Pink. The song ends on the subdominant, C Major, which may create an "unfinished" or "dissatisfying" feeling
Do you think the time signature changes during a song, are by design, for most rock bands? Did Roger Waters sit down and think he wanted 5/8 here, and then 9/8 here? Or do you think he wrote music that sounded good to him, and not think about the time signatures.
Today, I was looking up the history of Pink Floyd's Mother, and Wikipedia had this to say:
Mother is 5:32 in length. The majority of the song is in G Major, though the chorus is predominantly a plagal cadence in C Major. The song is notable for its varied use of time signatures, such as 5/8 and 9/8.[4] Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason found these time-signature changes difficult to learn, and, with the band recording on a very tight schedule, ceded the drumming duties to session drummer Jeff Porcaro.[5]
The song begins quietly with solo voice and a single acoustic guitar, and gradually expands its instrumentation to include, by the song's end, reed organ, piano, drums, electric bass, and electric guitar. The song has a minimal introduction, consisting only of a sharp inhalation and rapid exhalation before the first verses are sung by Roger Waters. The verse starts with one measure of 5/8, while most of it 4/4, or "common time".[citation needed] It also features one measure of 6/8.
The chorus, sung by David Gilmour starts out on two measures of 4/4 before going into 6/8 (or "compound duple meter") for most of the chorus, in a narrative response to the first set of lyrics. There is also one measure of 9/8. Then a guitar solo follows over a chord progression in 4/4 time. Waters sings another verse, which is once more followed by Gilmour's chorus (with different lyrics). Finally, the song concludes with an arrangement stripped back down to one acoustic guitar and Waters's voice, and a ritardando in which Waters sings, "Mother did it need to be so high?", a reference to the metaphorical wall constructed by the character Pink. The song ends on the subdominant, C Major, which may create an "unfinished" or "dissatisfying" feeling
Do you think the time signature changes during a song, are by design, for most rock bands? Did Roger Waters sit down and think he wanted 5/8 here, and then 9/8 here? Or do you think he wrote music that sounded good to him, and not think about the time signatures.
