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B'way songs in unusual time signatures

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#1

B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:05pm

By unusual time signatures I mean not in common time or 3/4 (waltz) or even 6/8 (march) time. I'm excluding 3/4 because then it would be too easy.
Anyway, here are the ones I can think of:

"Feelings" from The Apple Tree (9/8 time)
"I Should Tell You" from Rent (switching from 6/4 to 3/4)
I remember that there is a song in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Song and Dance that is in 5/8 time but I don't remember the name of the song. I only heard it once on the radio (Sirius Sattelite that is).
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#2

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:14pm

Love to Me is written in 4/4 + 5/4. I've had several discussions about how exactly this is supposed to be played.
yr ronin,
joey
#3

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:18pm

Love to Me isn't as hard as it seems. City on fire in Sweeney is written in 15/16. VERY strange. Welcome home from Pippin is written in 11/8. Schwartz actually does a lot of meter shifts in many of his songs. Liontamer is another one.
#4

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:29pm

It's not. It's just funny that he wrote it in that time signature. I have a long rant about this though.

There's a song in Anyone Can Whistle that has a lot of rapid fire time signature changes I think, but I can't remember which one it is. I just remember reading about it.

It's all about the composer feeling sadistic :P
yr ronin,
joey
#5

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:30pm

West End Avenue from "The Magic Show". It's unusual because it has so many time changes.
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#6

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 2:35pm

There's a lot of odd time signatures in West Side Story. The Tonight Quintet is in 4/4, 2/4 time where each measure alternates...4 beats, 2 beats, 4 beats, 2 beats...

The end of "Jet Song" goes from 4 measures of 6/8 to 4 measures of 2/4, and the 2/4 is a continuation of the 6/8 melody ending.

Taunting Scene has a couple of 9/8 measures

A Boy Like That constantly changes time signatures from measure to measure
"If there was a Mount Rushmore for Broadway scores, "West Side Story" would be front and center. It snaps, it crackles it pops! It surges with a roar, its energy and sheer life undiminished by the years" - NYPost reviewer Elisabeth Vincentelli
#7

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 3:06pm

Of course this comes up while I am work at away from my music :)

I am pretty sure that "Pity the Child" from Chess and the title song from Sunset Boulevard are both in compound time. For some reason I am thinking "Where in the World" from Secret Garden is in 9/8 or 12/8...but I would need to look at the music to know for sure.

Meters like 9/8 and 12/8 really aren't all that tough, when the beat is irregular like in 7/8 or 5/8 then it can be a bit interesting!
"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering." --Harold Hill from The Music Man
#8

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 4:45pm

"America" from West Side Story is written in something wacky. I know it has some 7/8 in there, but it feels like it switches every measure or something.
#9

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 6:08pm

"Sensitivity" in ONCE UPON A MATTRESS is in 5/4, "Lion Tamer" in THE MAGIC SHOW is 7/4, and there's a Rodgers and Hart song from 1926 or so, "Someone Should Tell Them," which changes time.
#10

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 6:10pm

I remember trying to learn The Ballad of Booth from Assassins being very tricky, not because any single time signature was that difficult, but because the time changes literally dozens of times.
#13

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 6:58pm

"Oh Happy We" from Candide is also in 7/4

Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop.
#14

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 6:58pm

"Love to Me" is from Piazza
"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering." --Harold Hill from The Music Man
#17

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 1/3/06 at 9:15pm

Sunset Boulevard is in 5/8
Nothing Like you've ever known from Song and Dance is in 5/4
and my favorite
Shimbleshanks from Cats is in 13/8
Keep your morals, I don't have time. Keep your lovers, I'm changing mine! -The Likes of Us
#18

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 6/7/06 at 9:53am

Anyone know the time signatures for "Ladies in their Sensitivities" from Sweeney Todd?

My sister and I were trying to figure it out, and although both of us are excellent musicians (she being a music major), we couldn't keep track of the changes.
On the road of life, do not pause for suicidal chipmunks who freeze in your headlights, seeking death by your tires...
#19

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 6/7/06 at 10:28am

It sounds like 4/4 to me.

Ladies in their sensi/ tivities my lord/ have a fragile sensi/bility. When a girl's emergent/ probably its urgent.

Seems like a simple meter with words carrying over the bar to me.
Keep your morals, I don't have time. Keep your lovers, I'm changing mine! -The Likes of Us
#20

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 6/7/06 at 10:35am

Many songs in Sweeney Todd have change-ups in meter. Too many to count. The Worst Pies In London might be the "worst" in that show.

Even Send in the Clowns has a "droped count" with "Me here at last on the ground, You in mid-air."

As far as time signatures...

Webber does it frequently as well... "The Money Kept Rollin' In" from EVITA is in 7/8 time, I believe.
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#21

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 6/7/06 at 10:44am

Golden Helmet, among others, from "Man of LaMancha"
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#22

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 6/7/06 at 10:56am

ALW really likes the 7/4, 7/8 and 5/8. Almost all of his shows have it in some form.

In addition to the ones already mentioned in JCS, "Heaven On Their Minds" jumps to 5/8 during the "Nazareth, your famous son..." section.
#23

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 6/7/06 at 10:56am

I remember watching an orchestra rehearsal for a production of "On The Town" I was directing. The conductor and the orchestra players spent at least ten precious minutes trying to figure out how to conduct a single bar of 1/1 that Bernstein had inserted into one of the dance numbers. It was a wanky piece to begin with, with three or four different time and key changes, then suddenly 1/1. I believe that eventually, the conductor did a point with his finger that looked like a period as written by Victor Borge.
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#25

re: B'way songs in unusual time signatures

Posted: 6/7/06 at 11:02am

The part I'm thinking about is "Excuse me, my lord. May I request, my lord.."

The later part is clearly in 4/4. But we can't figure out the signatures for the recitative.
On the road of life, do not pause for suicidal chipmunks who freeze in your headlights, seeking death by your tires...

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