Septuple Meter

Septuple meter (British: metre) or (chiefly British) septuple time is a meter with each bar (American: measure) divided into 7 notes of equal duration, usually or (or in compound meter, time). The stress pattern can be , , or occasionally , although a survey of certain forms of mostly American popular music suggests that is the most common among these three in these styles.

A time signature of , however, does not necessarily mean that the bar is a compound septuple meter with seven beats, each divided into three. This signature may, for example, be used to indicate a bar of triple meter in which each beat is subdivided into seven parts. In this case, the meter is sometimes characterized as "triple septuple time". It is also possible for a time signature to be used for an irregular, or "additive" metrical pattern, such as groupings of eighth notes.

Septuple meter can also be notated by using regularly ''alternating'' bars of triple and duple or quadruple meters, for example + , or + + , or through the use of compound meters, in which two or three numerals take the place of the expected numerator 7, for example, , or .

History

Before the 20th century, septuple time was rare in European concert music but is more commonly found in European folk music and in other world cultures.

Asia and the Middle East

In the Thai dance-drama genre ''lakhon nok'' and the masked dance-drama ''khon'' there is a unique group of songs based on a rhythmic cycle of seven beats, quite unlike the usual rhythmic structures of Thai traditional music. Portions of this repertoire of songs in additive meter date back to the Ayudhia period (1350–1767).

In the Carnatic music of south India, there are thirty-five tāla in five temporal species, multiplied by seven classes of measurement—one of the five species is septuple. The classes of measurement in this "formal" system consist of seven basic tālas (called ''sūḷādi'' talas). Each of these is built from three types of component durations: the one-beat ''anudruta'', the two-beat ''druta'', and the variable ''laghu'', which may have three (''tisra''), four (''caturaśra''), five (''khaṇḍa''), seven (''miśra''), or nine (''saṅkīrṇa'') beats, and accounts for the five temporal species of each tāla. Two of the resulting thirty-five forms have seven beats in all: the ''khaṇda'' form of Rūpaka tāla, with one ''druta'' and a five-beat (''khaṇda'') ''laghu'': , and the ''tisra'' form of Tripuṭa, with a three-beat ''laghu'' and two ''druta'': . ''Tisra'' Tripuṭa is one of the principal talas of the system, and so is often called simply by its basic name, Tripuṭa. ''Khaṇda'' Rūpaka, on the other hand, is a comparative rarity. The more common form, ''caturaśra'' Rūpaka, has a ''laghu'' of four beats and so a total beat pattern of .

Carnatic music also has an "informal" system of tālas, which uses a selection of the formal tālas. These include the septuple Tripuṭa, to which is added a ''Cāpu'' (fast) version of it, called ''miśra Cāpu'' (, or ). ''Miśra Cāpu'' is one of the most characteristic rhythms in the music of southern India, accounting for well over half of the ''padam'' compositions by the 17th-century composer Kshetrayya, and occurs in some of the best-known kīrtanam works by Tyagaraja (1767–1847). The Hindustani tālas used in the north also include septuple patterns. The tala Rupak, for example, has seven beats. (also known at Gīt-tāl) is also a septuple tāla. Two tālas, Dīpcandī and Jhūmrā, have fourteen beats in all, but are divided symmetrically into two halves of beats each. The tālas Ādā-cautāl and Dhamār are also fourteen beats long, but the former is divided asymmetrically, and the latter is only partially symmetrical: It has several different patterns, the most common of which falls into two seven-beat halves, but with different internal divisions: and , where the ''khālī'' (empty) beat marks the division of the cycle into two halves.

Folk music in Turkey employs metres consisting of five, seven, or eleven pulses, as well as metres with irregular subdivisions. In Turkish art music, the system of rhythmic modes called '' usul'' consist of rhythmic cycles of two to ten counting units. The pattern of seven beats is called ''devr-i hindi''.

Balkan folk music

Septuple rhythms are characteristic of some European folk idioms, particularly in the Balkan countries. An example from Macedonia is the traditional tune "Jovano Jovanke", which can be transcribed in . Bulgarian dances are particularly noted for the use of a variety of irregular, or heterometric rhythms. The most popular of these is the ', a type of ''khoro'' in a rapid septuple meter divided . In the Pirin area, the ''khoro'' has a rhythm subdivided , and two varieties of it are the ' ("straight Macedonian") and the ' ("men's rachenitsa"). Septuple rhythms are also found in Bulgarian vocal music, such as the ''koleda'' ritual songs sung by young men on Christmas Eve and Christmas to bless livestock, households, or specific family members.

Such irregular meters are also found throughout Greece, where they are sometimes identified as originating in neighboring countries. For example, in Epirus, a district bordering Albania, there is a style of singing in imitation of the sound of Byzantine bells, that employs microtonal intervals and is described by the singers themselves as "Albanian" or "pastoral Vlach". The rhythms vary, but sometimes is in bars of seven beats, particularly in the area around Mount Parnassus. The rhythm of the ''kalamatianos'' from the same region, however, is regarded as purely Greek.

European art music

18th century

The last movement of Joseph Haydn's Piano Sonata XVI:12, written as early as the 1750s, has been claimed to use exclusively seven-measure units in its background, if not in its foreground. Performers typically choose a tempo such that the notated measure sounds like a single beat, projecting a perception of septuple meter.

19th century

Though rare in the 19th century, septuple metre is occasionally found. Two examples from the piano repertoire entirely in septuple meter are Fugue No. 24, from '' 36 Fugues for Piano'' by Anton Reicha (notated in regularly alternating and bars), and the Impromptu, Op. 32, no. 8, by Charles-Valentin Alkan, notated in time. The theme and first eight (of thirteen) ''Variations on a Hungarian Song'' Op. 21, No. 2 by Johannes Brahms is in septuple time, notated as regular alternations of and , though various accenting factors often obscure the perceived metre. In the last two of the five versions of "Promenade" from ''Pictures at an Exhibition'' by Modest Mussorgsky, is mixed irregularly with other metres: (4th Promenade) , , and , with a single bar at the end; (5th Promenade) four pairs of regularly alternating and , then an irregular mixture of , , and to the end.

Symphonic and choral works containing occasional septuple bars include the conjuration of soothsayers in ''L'enfance du Christ'', Op. 25 (1854) by Hector Berlioz, which "has a relatively extended passage of septuple metre (ten bars of , then three of and three of ; the pattern repeats with four each of and )", and the ''Dante Symphony'' by Franz Liszt, which has several bars in .

In operetta, parts of "Here's a man of jollity" in Gilbert and Sullivan's ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' (1888) is in , notated as alternating bars of and . The rest is in a mixture of and .

An example of chamber music from the later 19th century is found in the Piano Trio No. 3, Op. 101, by Brahms. In the third movement (Andante grazioso), the main (outer) sections are in (notated as a recurring + + ), while the central section is in compound-quintuple time: (notated as + ) with turnarounds, and an eight-bar coda in .

20th century

Igor Stravinsky's name is often associated with rhythmic innovation in the 20th century, and septuple meter is sometimes found in his music—for example, the closing "General Rejoicing" section (Allegro non troppo), from rehearsal 203 to rehearsal 209, in his ballet ''The Firebird'' (1910) is written uniformly in time. Much more characteristically, septuple bars in Stravinsky's scores are found in a context of constantly changing meters, as for example in his ballet ''The Rite of Spring'' (1911–13), where the object appears to be the combination of two- and three-note subdivisions in irregular groupings. For example, in Part II, third tableau, "Glorification of the Chosen Maiden", bars of and are interspersed with bars of , , , , , , , , , and time. This treatment of rhythm subsequently became so habitual for Stravinsky that, when he composed his Symphony in C in 1938–40, he found it worth observing that the first movement had no changes of meter at all (though the metrical irregularities in the third movement of the same work were amongst the most extreme in his entire output).

So many other composers followed Stravinsky's example in the use of irregular meters that the occasional occurrence of septuple-time bars becomes unremarkable from the 1920s onward. This is as true for composers regarded as conservative as for those labeled "progressive" or "avant garde". In the former category, this rhythmic usage was characteristic of compositions from the 1920s and 1930s by Gustav Holst. Septuple bars, for example, are found in passages in his opera ''The Perfect Fool'' (1918–22)—notably the two "earth" themes in the ballet of the elements, and the arrival of the Princess, which is "a genuine example of the septuple measure as distinct from those arising merely from prosody"—and in ''A Choral Fantasia'', Op. 51 (bars 70–98, 179–85, and 201–209 are in ). Some of Maurice Ravel's music incorporated septuple meter: for example, the brief "Danse générale" from Part I of ''Daphnis et Chloé'' is in (subdivided as ), the finale of the Piano Trio freely alternates between and , and the main theme of the finale of his Sonata for Violin and Cello is in "quasi " (notated as a recurring + + ). An example from the next decade is Benjamin Britten's String Quartet No. 2, Op. 35 (1945), where bars 2 and 13 after rehearsal K in the first movement, "Allegro calmo senza rigore", are in , and from the 1950s, the second subject of the third movement, Allegro, of Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2, Op. 102 (1957), which is in a fast . Examples from more "progressive" composers include the first and third movements of the First Cantata, Op. 29 (1938–39), by Anton Webern, and the fourth movement (Intermezzo interrotto) of Béla Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra (1943).

Septuple meter is sometimes employed to characterize particular sections of compositions, such as single variations of pieces in variation form. One example is the third movement (Variations on a Ground), of Holst's Double Concerto for two violins and orchestra, Op. 49, where the 13th and 17th variations are in time. An example from after the Second World War is found in Part I of Leonard Bernstein's '' The Age of Anxiety: Symphony No. 2'', a theme-and-variations movement in which "Variation X: Più mosso" is notated in regularly alternating and bars, each pair amounting to one bar.

Compositions entirely or predominantly in septuple meter are less common. Five of Holst's settings of English translations of hymns from the ancient Sanskrit ''Rig Veda'', composed between 1907 and 1912, are in septuple meter, specifically "Song of the Frogs" and "Creation" (songs 6 and 8 from his ''Hymns from the Rig Veda'', Op. 24, for voice and piano, composed in 1907–08) as well as "Funeral Hymn" (''Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda'', Op. 26, Group 1, No. 3 for SATB chorus and orchestra or piano, composed between 1908 and 1910), "Hymn to the Waters" (''Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda'' Group 3 no. 2 for SSA chorus and harp or piano, composed in 1909), and "Hymn to Manas" (''Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda'' Group 4 no. 3 for TTBB chorus with orchestra or unaccompanied, composed in 1912). The last movement, "Precipitato", of the Piano Sonata No. 7 by the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, which is in , and ''Sensemayá'', for orchestra, by the Mexican Silvestre Revueltas (predominantly in , with occasional interruptions in time and a brief 7-bar interlude at rehearsal 23 of ( + )) are particularly well-known instances. Béla Bartók sometimes adopted septuple dance rhythms from the folk music of Eastern Europe, as in "Bulgarian Rhythm (1)" and the second of the "Six Dances in Bulgarian Rhythm", nos. 113 and 149 from '' Mikrokosmos'', both of which are in . Other examples from the middle of the century include the third movement, "Très Animé", of the Fantasia for saxophone, 3 horns, and string orchestra (1948), by Heitor Villa-Lobos, "In the First Pentatonic Minor Mode (En el 1er modo pentáfono menor)", no. 5 from ''12 American Preludes'' for piano by Alberto Ginastera, in , and "Old Joe Has Gone Fishing" by Benjamin Britten (from the 1945 opera ''Peter Grimes''), which is written in , with the beats grouped as both and in a round.

Other notable compositions in septuple meter

* "Aire", by Chicago ( and )
* "Alien", by Lamb
* "And the Money Kept Rolling In (and Out)" from ''Evita'' by Andrew Lloyd Webber (, except for a three-bar introduction in ).
*" ''Ant-Man'' Main Theme" by Christophe Beck ()
* "Another World of Beasts" from ''Final Fantasy VI'' by Nobuo Uematsu ().
* "Barstool Warrior" by Dream Theater from the album ''Distance Over Time'' () with one brief measure of ()
* " Beat Me, Daddy, Seven to the Bar" by Don Ellis ()
*"La Bosniaque", fifth movement of the second pentacle ("Révérences engrenées") of Henri Pousseur's ''Automates en leur jardinet'' (2000–2001), , mislabeled .
* "Demons" by the National ()
* " Desert Island Disk" by Radiohead()
*"Don't Eat the Yellow Snow" by Frank Zappa ()
* " Dreaming in Metaphors" by Seal.
* " Estimated Prophet" by the Grateful Dead ()
* "Etropolis" by Stefan Goldmann ()
* "The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)" by Yes ()
* "Haggstrom", by C418, on ''Minecraft – Volume Alpha'' ()
* " Lucky Seven" by Chris Squire ()
* "Fix the Sky a Little", by 65daysofstatic.
*"Mother" by the Police ()
*Prelude in Lydian Mode by Alexei Stanchinsky ()
* "Pussy Wiggle Stomp" by Don Ellis ()
* " Rubylove" by Cat Stevens ().
* "Senseless" by Norwegian gothic metal band Theatre of Tragedy is in septuple meter; it was originally track seven on their 2006 album ''Storm''.
* "St. Augustine In Hell" (1993) (1996) by Sting ().
* "7/4 (shoreline)" by Broken Social Scene ()
* "Solsbury Hill" by Peter Gabriel ().
* "Stone Soup" by Ned McGowan ()
* "Szamár Madár" by Venetian Snares (arrangement of a passage from Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, in )
* "Theme from ''Tron''" by Wendy Carlos is in slow ()
* "Ticks and Leeches" by Tool ()
* "The ''Tihai''" by Don Ellis ()
* "Tombo in " by José Neto, Flora Purim, and Diana Moreira ()
* "Turkish Bath" by Ron Myers, performed by the Don Ellis orchestra ()
* "Unsquare Dance" by Dave Brubeck ().
* "Waltz in 7/8" by Yanni ().
* "What Does He Want of Me" from Man of La Mancha is in
* "What Would I Want? Sky" by Animal Collective is in
* "Whiplash" by Hank Levy, in () subdivided in multiple ways throughout the piece
*" ''Wonder Woman'' Main Theme" by Hans Zimmer, for the 2017 film ()
* "Words, Words, Words" (Martin's Laughing Song), from act 2 of ''Candide'', by Leonard Bernstein ()
* "World Away" by Tweedy ()

Partially in septuple meter

* Adagio, second movement from String Quartet No. 2 (1955) by Benjamin Lees, "largely in meter"
* "All You Need Is Love" by the Beatles, verses in
* " Anyone Who Had a Heart" by Burt Bacharach, sung by Dionne Warwick – turnaround at the end of the bridge, as pointed out to Bacharach by Dionne Warwick. However the song features ", , to and resolving on in only eight bars" according to Allmusic.
* "Baroque Bordello" by The Stranglers: on the verse, the guitar is in while the other instruments play in .
* "The Battle of Epping Forest" from ''Selling England by the Pound'' by Genesis. The intro + verse are in , followed by several sub-sections and then back to .
* "Box Elder" by Motion City Soundtrack: includes
* "Breadcrumb Trail" by Slint, in Dave Hooper's 1997 arrangement, verses and other sections in
* "Brighter than a Thousand Suns" from '' A Matter of Life and Death'' by Iron Maiden, main riff and chorus in , bridge in
* Measures 11-117 of the first movement of Leonard Bernstein's ''Chichester Psalms'' are in , notated and performed as .
*"The Cinema Show" from ''Selling England by the Pound'' by Genesis concludes with an extended instrumental section in
* "Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra" by Philip Glass develops a theme in the third movement that shifts between and .
* "Diary of a Madman" by Ozzy Osbourne, verses in
* "Ethiopia" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, in except for a chorus
*"Golden Brown" by The Stranglers has an intro that alternates between bars of and . This motif returns multiple times during the song.
* "Hartmann's Youkai Girl", from '' Touhou Chireiden~ Subterranean Animism'', begins in , but has later segments in
* " Heart of Glass" by Blondie, a break in after the second chorus
* "Heaven on Their Minds", from ''Jesus Christ Superstar'', by Andrew Lloyd Webber: mainly in , but turnarounds in b. 44–51 and 69–76 in
* "I Am the Doctor", by Murray Gold, from the soundtrack to the fifth series of ''Doctor Who''
* "I Tamper with the Evidence at the Murder Site of Odin" by Dethklok, in , except for two interludes in common timeDethalbum II: Authentic Guitar TAB (Authentic Guitar Tab Edition)
* "I Was Brought to My Senses" by Sting, intro in , rest in
* "I Was Made For Loving You" by Tori Kelly and Ed Sheeran. Intro and chorus alternate +
* " Internet Symphony No. 1" by Tan Dun, third movement contains measures in
* "In the House of Tom Bombadil" by Nickel Creek, alternates between and .
* "Jive Talkin'" by Bee Gees has a recurring post-chorus synthesizer break notated as either or alternating measures of and
* "Jocko Homo" by Devo primarily in , but changes to partway through
* "Laps in Seven", by Sam Bush (). (except for the electric mandolin solo which is in time)
* "Like a Beautiful Smile" by Sting. The main theme is three bars of and one bar of . The chorus is in .
* "The Man Who Sailed Around His Soul" by XTC, verses in
* "Meetings Along the Edge" by Philip Glass and Ravi Shankar develops two themes in 7 and one in 4 beats per measure.
* "Meheeco" by English group Sky. The second part features an alternation of – . In the live versions, the drums would often continue playing over the rest of the band's bars, creating an isorhythm.
* "A Mix Tape", from ''Avenue Q'', by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Mostly in time, with regularly alternating pairs of and in the opening and closing sections (spoken and vamped portions).
* "Money" by Pink Floyd, predominantly in
* "Mysterious Traveler" by Weather Report (Wayne Shorter). First section primarily in (notated + ) interspersed with occasional . Second section in .
* "Nothing on My Back" by Sum 41, from the album ''All Killer No Filler'', opening riff in
* " The Ocean" by Led Zeppelin, built upon the drum groove and lead guitar line: one bar of and one bar of
* "Oh, Happy We" from act 1 of ''Candide'' by Leonard Bernstein: verses in , turnarounds in
* "Outshined" by Soundgarden, verses in
* "Paranoid Android" by Radiohead. Producer Michael G noted that "Paranoid Android" "flips between time and time about 13 times".
* "Los peones de hacienda", from the ballet ''Estancia'' by Alberto Ginastera: bars 27–28 (third and fourth bars following rehearsal 65) in
* "Prequel to the Sequel" by Between the Buried and Me, some scattered bars in and other time signatures
* "Presto ruvido", no. 4 of ''Sechs Bagatellen'' for wind quintet (1953) by György Ligeti (all in except b. 36, 39, and 51, in , , and , respectively)
* " Revolting Children" from ''Matilda the Musical'' by Tim Minchin: sections of verses in
*"Ring Out Solstice Bells" by Jethro Tull is in alternating with referencing its time signature with the lyric "seven maids move in seven time".
* "The River" by King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard from their 2015 album ''Quarters!'', sections in both and
* "Schism" by Tool, verse with alternating measures of and , chorus of alternating measures of and
* "Seven" by Dave Matthews Band (verses in )
* "Speculation", composed by Shoji Meguro for the ''Persona 4'' video game soundtrack. Largely in , with a bridge in .
* "Spiders" by Slipknot ()
* "Spoonman" by Soundgarden. The intro, verses, drum solo, and parts of the bridge are in (sometimes transcribed as ). Choruses, parts of the bridges, and guitar solo are in , and the spoons solo is in .
*"Suicide Mission" by Jack Wall for Mass Effect 2: "a large section or so of throughout, particularly at the end"
* " Tattooed Love Boys" by The Pretenders. Verses alternate between and .
*" The Temple" from ''Jesus Christ Superstar'' is in except for Jesus's solo, which is in .
* "Them Bones" by Alice in Chains: verses in , chorus in
* "Thunderchild" by Jeff Wayne from his concept album ''War of the Worlds'', primarily in
* "Time" by Anthrax from the album ''Persistence of Time''. Intro in .
* "Two Toccatas" by George Antheil. The first toccata features a middle section in .
* ''Variations et fugue sur un thème original'', Op. 42, by Zygmunt Stojowski: theme in , also the variations 2, 3, and 10
* "La Villa Strangiato" by Rush, some sections in
* "Wind It Up" by moe.: long middle section in , rest of the song in and

See also

*List of musical works in unusual time signatures

References

Sources

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Meter (Music)
Asian rhythm
European rhythm
Time signatures
Articles containing video clips