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List of musical works in unusual time signatures

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List of works in irregular time signatures.

Some examples of musical compositions or pieces in Western music are:

File:Take Five-piano intro.png
"Take Five" piano intro.

5/4 or 5/8

also known as "quintuple meter", usually grouped as either (3+2) or (2+3)


1 The theme songs from the M:I feature films (1996 and 2000) use 4/4 by repeating the first three beats of the bass line twice, holding melody notes during that period, and halving each note's duration.

7/4

septuple meter

7/8

septuple meter, usually 2+2+3

(1977) the piano solo on Mad Man Moon, by Genesis

7/16

  • (1984) "The Attitude Song" by Steve Vai. Steve's heavy guitar riff is in 7/16 (3 eighth notes and a 16th on the end) while the band plays a solid 4/4 beat underneath

9/4

  • (1974) "Riding The Scree" by Genesis (the extended instrumental sections have a backbeat in 9/4 though the keyboards occasionally play over the top in 4/4)
  • (1979) "Watermelon in Easter Hay" by Frank Zappa. Played as 4/4 & 5/4
  • (1982) "Sole Survivor" by Asia
  • (1985) "Perfect Strangers" by Deep Purple. (Only the outro and bridge) Played as 4/4 & 5/4.
  • (1991) "No More Tears" by Ozzy Osbourne
  • (2000) "Street Carp" by Deftones
  • (2000) "Last Day on Earth" by Duran Duran. Played as 5/4 & 4/4.

9/8

expressed as 2+2+2+3 (used in the Turkish rhythm karşılama)

10/4

10/8

(expressed as 3+3+2+2)

11/4

  • (1874) "Promenade" from Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky (written as 5/4 + 6/4)
  • (1980) "Jacob's Ladder" by Rush. Intro played as 5/4 & 6/4. When the vocals enter, Geddy Lee does a section of 4/4 while the guitar and drums play 5/4 & 6/4 in the background.
  • (1982) "Dirt" by Mission of Burma. Can also be heard as a measure of 4/4, a measure of 3/4 and two measures of 2/4.
  • (2003) "Hey Ya" by Outkast

11/8

  • (1968) "The Eleven" by Grateful Dead
  • (1977) "Cygnus X-1" by Rush (parts, written in 3+3+3+2)
  • (1979) "Outside Now" by Frank Zappa. 6/8 & 5/8
  • (1983) "Tink Walks Amok" by Frank Zappa (bass part is 4+4+3)
  • (1991) "Love Is a Fist" by Mr Bungle
  • (1991) "Eleven" by Primus 3+3+3+2
  • (1997) "Duchess and the Proverbial Mind Spread" by Primus
  • (2003) "Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With" by King Crimson

13/4

13/8

  • (1973) "Giggy Smile" by Faust from Faust IV played as 6/8 & 7/8
  • (1976) "Robbery, Assault And Battery" by Genesis (for over two minutes in the centre of the song - the keyboard solo, a vocal section, and the guitar solo)
  • (1980) "Jacob's Ladder" by Rush, see also 11/4. Towards the end of the song, a 13/8 section is played as 6/8 & 7/8.
  • (1981) "Skimbleshanks" from Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Cats
  • (1982) "Golden Brown" by The Stranglers. This piece shifts between a compound duple or compound quadruple (6/8 or 12/8) and a 13/8 signature.
  • (1992) "Thirteen" by Frank Zappa. Played as 4/4 & 5/8.
  • (1993) "Flood" by Tool
  • (2000) "Sleeping Beauty" by A Perfect Circle. One bar of 6/8, then one bar of 7/8. The song shifts into 4/4 later and then back into 6/8.
  • (2000) "Son Song" by Soulfly
  • (2003) "Severance" by Portal

(1985) "Lords of the Backstage" by Marillion

13/16

14/4

  • (1959) "Three To Get Ready" by Dave Brubeck Quartet from Time Out (two bars of 3/4 followed by two bars of 4/4, consistently through the piece)

14/16

15/4

15/8

17/4

  • (1974) "Back In N.Y.C." by Genesis (verse is 7/8, first part of chorus 7+7+3 = 17/4, second part of chorus 7+7+3+7+7+4 = 35/8)
  • (1993) "Pain Divine" by Morbid Angel
  • (2004) "Turn It Up" by Ashanti (4+5+4+4)

17/8

17/16

  • (1993) "Psycho Shemps" by Tony Fredianelli (but played as 19/16 + 17/16 + 14/16 + 9/8)

17/24

  • (1994) "The Planets (Astrological Studies) Book I: Mars" by Kyle Gann

18/8

19/8

19/16

  • (1973) "Celestial Terrestrial Commuters" by Mahavishnu Orchestra.
  • (1974) "The Gates of Delirium" by Yes, has an instrumental part with this time.
  • (1979) "Keep It Greasy" by Frank Zappa. Played as a measure of 4/4 with three 16ths tacked on the end, or 4+4+4+4+3.
  • (1979) "Hell's Bells" by Bill Bruford Played as 7+7+5.
  • (1994) "Blind" by Korn

21/16

23/8

  • (1983) "Changes" by Yes

23/16

25/4

25/16

  • (1996) "Ænema" by Tool

27/8

28/8

  • (1989) Fourth movement Allegro from Piano Sonata No. 2 by Nikolai Kapustin is in strictly repeating 4/4, 7/8, 4/4, 5/8 throughout.

29/8

33/8

41/8

41/16

51/8

59/16

  • (2000) "Death Blooms" by Mudvayne (16+15+16+12)

61/8

63/16

65/64

89/8

  • (1996) "Hooker With A Penis" by Tool


Other

 
Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, excerpt from the Sacrificial Dance

The earliest known western music was unmeasured (at least in the modern sense). For example the performance of plainsong, many of the masterpieces of which date from the fifth or sixth to the eighth centuries, is inflected both by the meter of the poetry and the articulation of the phrases into neumes, the groups of notes sung to each syllable, and this often results in complex and irregular rhythms.

Compositions whose time signature is not constant are often encountered in 20th and 21st century western classical music, Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring (1913) providing an influential early example.

  • (1966) "Son of Suzy Creamcheese" by Frank Zappa. According to Zappa - " It's four bars of 4/4, one bar 8/8, one bar of 9/8--OK? And then it goes 8/8, 9/8, 8/8, 9/8, 8/8, 9/8, then it goes 8/8, 4/8, 5/8, 6/8, and back into 4/4 again."
  • (2004) "Leave (Get Out)" by JoJo has an unknown time signature
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