Time signatures in music are written like fractions. The numerator tells how the beats are grouped into measures. For the vast majority of Western music in every genre — popular, classical, jazz, country, etc. — this numerator is divisible by 2 or 3, but hardly ever by any other prime numbers. Musicians call exceptional time signatures “odd meters” though this is misleading. When they say “odd” they mean “odd numbers other than powers of 3.” For example, musicians would not call 9/8 and odd meter, but they would call 7/8 or 11/8 odd.
The most popular piece of music by far written in 5/4 time was Dave Brubeck’s Take Five. It sold over a million records in 1961 and continues to be popular 50 years after it was written. Here’s a video of the Brubeck Quartet performing Take Five in 1966.
And here is a mind-bending mash up of Take Five by Radiohead. (Thanks to @explicitmemory for the link.)
Some music written in odd meters sounds like an intellectual exercise rather than a beautiful tune. The music of Dave Brubeck is a notable exception. In addition to Take Five, he composed other popular music in odd meters, such as Unsquare Dance written in 7/4. (Listen to a sample of Unsquare Dance here.) Another song in 5/4 I enjoy is “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us” recorded by Sarah Sadler.
Theme songs for action movies sometimes have music written in odd meters. For example: Mission Impossible, Mod Squad, and The Incredibles.
Update: See the follow-up post on Blue Rondo à la Turk.
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Shawna Kennedy 02.27.09 at 10:24
Odd-meters are not so uncommon in Middle Eastern and Eastern European music. While less common now due to the influence of Western musical culture, there is quite a lot of Turkish and Romany music in 5/8, 7/8, 9/8, and 13/8 time. Keep in mind too that a Turkish or Romany 9/8 is not subdivided evenly (approximating a waltz feeling), but is usually subdivided as 1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2-3.
Dave Richeson 02.27.09 at 10:36
I’d never heard the Radiohead/Brubeck song. Cool! Thanks for sharing it!
John S. 02.27.09 at 10:53
In college I roomed with a music major, and he always said that Take Five is not really in 5/4 time, but more like 3 + 2/4. Or something.
Here is a wikipedia list of songs in odd time signatures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_works_in_unusual_time_signatures
John 02.27.09 at 11:35
Shawna, thanks! See the next post on Blue rondo a la Turk based on your comment.
Mark 02.27.09 at 12:23
“Take Five” is still one of my favorite CDs. I hadn’t heard the Radiohead mashup — excellent. Another recent song that’s partially in 5/4 time (I’m taking other folks word for it — my technical knowledge of music stops at the “insert CD” step) is “Dirty Second Hands” by Switchfoot (poor quality, but full-length link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiAAjePh_XM).
Maria-Eglee Perez 02.27.09 at 13:04
Hi, John! Lovely post. You can also find “odd meters” in Latin American music. Venezuelan “merengue” is many times written as 5/8… even though some venezuelan musicians think it should be written as 11/16!!
Mark Reid 02.27.09 at 16:59
Thanks for bringing the Radiohead/Brubeck mash-up to my attention. Great stuff.
If you like odd time signatures, you might also be interested in an artist who goes by the name Venetian Snares. Most of his tracks are in 9/8 or some other strange time and a recent album of his was a mix of orchestral sounds and drum and bass. Two stand outs for me are Öngyilkos Vasárnap and Szamár Madár.
Also, if you are up for a challenge, try to pick the time signature used by Radiohead in their (very haunting) Pyramid Song.
Jon Aston 02.27.09 at 18:57
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Mission_Impossible.html
John 02.27.09 at 19:09
Jon, Thanks for the link to the Mission Impossible theme song. I updated the post to link to it. Also, I found the Mod Squad theme on the same site.
I remember the theme from Mod Squad because we had to conduct it at drum major camp. (I’ve never seen the TV show.) Mod Squad is a challenge to conduct because it changes time signatures many times.
Richard Elwes 02.28.09 at 17:46
Although it is his most famous tune, Dave Brubeck didn’t actually write Take Five – it’s by the band’s sax-player Paul Desmond.
Another famous one is Pink Floyd’s Money, in 7/4.
John Venier 03.02.09 at 13:14
For unusual time signature (7/128 for example) as well as general numerological weirdness / complexity I like Crumb’s “Black Angels” — the score is really remarkable to look at, too.
You might also be interested in “mathcore” exemplified by bands like “The Dillinger Escape Plan”.
Aaron 03.03.09 at 12:39
Radiohead is making music again? I completely skipped “Hail to the Thief” after hearing the single, downloaded “In Rainbows” and deleted it the same day.
EastwoodDC 03.03.09 at 14:30
The music of King Crimson often has odd time signatures, and sometimes even more than one time signature at the same time, which can make for difficult listening.
Hank Levy wrote many big band pieces in odd times. A sample of my favorite “Time for a Change” in 9/4 time (4/4 + 3/4 + 2/2) can be found here. More Levy samples here.
David 03.16.09 at 00:55
John, maybe I missed it, but nobody here has mentioned what I think of as the most famous 5/4 piece written – Tchaikovsky’s pseudo-waltz movement from his Pathetique Symphony. There’s also a great song from ONCE UPON A MATTRESS (Sensitivity) that is mostly written in that time signature. Thanks for an interesting forum.
Ed 04.10.09 at 21:58
Wow, thanks for that Radiohead mash-up. Very neat.
I like Radiohead, but Brubeck makes 5/4 sound much more natural than they do.
Anyway, I posted my own take on songs in 5/4 here. You might enjoy it.
noah 04.28.09 at 09:25
certain genres of metal are played in odd signatures that change all the time. The Dillinger Escape plan is a great example. They were influenced by jazz. I suggest listening to their song “calculating infinity.” It’s just an instrumental song, and it sounds very jazzy. It’s complex.
Larissa B. 09.16.09 at 14:36
I actually have the sheet music for Take five, and it is indeed in 5/4.
Steve and Jock 11.06.09 at 11:57
“Sky” did “Dance of the Little Fairies” in 5/4 as well, and it was in the same kind of 5/4 as Take Five.
For a truly mindbending polyrhythmic time signature, check out Gorillaz 5/4, in which the guitars play in 5/4 but the drums in 4/4.