March in 7/4 time

After writing my post on music in 5/4 time, I remembered a march in 7/4 time that I played in band many years ago. Here’s an excerpt, about all I can remember.

sheet music example

In case the music above is too hard to read, here’s a full-sized PDF file version.

Marches are always in even meters: your left foot has to come down on the first beat of every measure when you’re marching. And yet this odd meter tune comes across as a convincing march. (It was a concert march. Actually marching to it would have been odd, pun intended.)

This march had a 4/4 + 3/4 feel, emphasis on the first and fifth beats of each 7/4 measure.

I’ve just started blogging about music recently, and I’ve got a lot to learn. I’m not set up to record audio clips. My next post will describe the software I used to post the sheet music above.

Update: Many thanks to Nikhil Chelliah for identifying the march. It’s the first movement from Third Suite by Robert Jager. The sheet music and a sound clip are available here.

Related post: Blue Rondo à la Turk

7 thoughts on “March in 7/4 time

  1. Nikhil Chelliah

    Sounds like the first movement from Robert Jager’s Third Suite – see here. I found a full recording online, but it was pretty lousy.

  2. Hi,
    I like your web site!
    Thought I might at a comment that Pink Floyd’s “Money” from Dark Side of the Moon is in 7/4 time.
    cheers, Rod

  3. Mr. Cook,
    I was in marching band for four years in High School. My senior year we performed excerpts from Holst’s The Planets. And yes – it was odd marching in 5/4 and 3/4. (Even though I was drum major, I still had to march in place while conducting.)
    -Matt

  4. You know how they count seven in the service bands, don’t you?

    one-two-three-four-five-six-se-VEN

    one-two-three-four-five-six-se-VEN….

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