Editing Time signature (section)

== Complex time signatures ==<!--[[Usual time signature]] and [[unusual time signature]] both redirect directly here.-->
{{See also|List of musical works in unusual time signatures|Quintuple meter|Septuple meter}}
{{Redirect|13/8|the date|August 13}}
{{Listen|filename=19-16 Time Drum Beat.ogg|title={{music|time|19|16}} Time Drum Beat|format=[[Ogg]]}}Signatures that do not fit the usual simple or compound categories are called ''complex'', ''asymmetric'', ''irregular'', ''unusual'', or ''odd''—though these are broad terms, and usually a more specific description is any meter which combines both simple and compound beats.<ref>{{Cite web |title=musictheory.net |url=https://www.musictheory.net/lessons/16#:~:text=8/8%20time%20contains%20two,since%20both%20have%208%20quavers. |access-date=2023-08-02 |website=www.musictheory.net}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Odd Time Signatures: A Complete Guide {{!}} Hello Music Theory|url=https://hellomusictheory.com/learn/odd-time-signatures/|access-date=2022-02-20|website=hellomusictheory.com/| date=6 March 2020 |language=en-GB}}</ref>

Irregular meters are common in some non-Western music, and in ancient Greek music such as the [[Delphic Hymns]] to Apollo, but the corresponding time signatures rarely appeared in formal written Western music until the 19th century. Early anomalous examples appeared in Spain between 1516 and 1520,<ref name="Emmons">Tim Emmons, ''Odd Meter Bass: Playing Odd Time Signatures Made Easy'' (Van Nuys: Alfred Publishing, 2008): 4. {{ISBN|978-0-7390-4081-2}}. "What is an 'odd meter'?...A complete definition would begin with the idea of music organized in repeating rhythmic groups of three, five, seven, nine, eleven, thirteen, fifteen, etc."</ref> plus a small section in Handel's opera [[Orlando (opera)|Orlando]] (1733).

The third movement of [[Frédéric Chopin]]'s [[Piano Sonata No. 1 (Chopin)|Piano Sonata No. 1]] (1828) is an early, but by no means the earliest, example of {{music|time|5|4}} time in solo piano music. [[Anton Reicha]]'s Fugue No. 20 from his ''[[36 Fugues (Reicha)|Thirty-six Fugues]]'', published in 1803, is also for piano and is in {{music|time|5|8}}. The [[waltz]]-like second movement of Tchaikovsky's [[Symphony No. 6 (Tchaikovsky)|''Pathétique'' Symphony]] (shown below), often described as a "limping waltz",<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics/pathetique.html |title=Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 (''Pathetique''), Classical Classics, Peter Gutmann |publisher=Classical Notes |access-date=2012-04-20}}</ref> is a notable example of {{music|time|5|4}} time in orchestral music.

: <score sound="1">
    \relative c {
        \set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 144
        \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"cello"
        \clef bass
        \key d \major
        \time 5/4
        fis4\mf(^\markup { \bold { Allegro con grazia } }
        g) \tuplet 3/2 { a8(\< g a } b4 cis)\!
        d( b) cis2.\>
        a4(\mf b) \tuplet 3/2 { cis8(\< b cis } d4 e)\!
        \clef tenor
        fis(\f d) e2. \break
        g4( fis) \tuplet 3/2 { e8( fis e } d4 cis)
        fis8-. [ r16 g( ] fis8) [ r16 eis( ] fis2.)
        fis4( e) \tuplet 3/2 { d8( e d } cis4) b\upbow(\<^\markup { \italic gliss. }
        b'8)\ff\> [a( g) fis-. ] e-. [ es-.( d-. cis-. b-. bes-.) ]
        a4\mf
}
</score>

Examples from [[20th-century classical music]] include:
* [[Gustav Holst]]'s "Mars, the Bringer of War" and "Neptune, the Mystic" from ''[[The Planets]]'' (both in {{music|time|5|4}})
* [[Paul Hindemith]]'s "Fuga secunda" in G from ''[[Ludus Tonalis]]'' ({{music|time|5|8}})
* the ending of [[Igor Stravinsky|Stravinsky's]] ''[[The Firebird]]'' ({{music|time|7|4}})
* the fugue from [[Heitor Villa-Lobos]]'s ''[[Bachianas Brasileiras#Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9|Bachianas Brasileiras No. 9]]'' ({{music|time|11|8}})
* the themes for the ''[[Mission: Impossible (1966 TV series)|Mission: Impossible]]'' television series by [[Lalo Schifrin]] (in {{music|time|5|4}}) and for ''[[Room 222]]'' by [[Jerry Goldsmith]] (in {{music|time|7|4}})<!--
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In the Western popular music tradition, unusual time signatures occur as well, with [[progressive rock]] in particular making frequent use of them. The use of shifting meters in [[The Beatles]]' "[[Strawberry Fields Forever]]" and the use of [[quintuple meter]] in their "[[Within You, Without You]]" are well-known examples,<ref name="Macan">Edward Macan, ''Rocking the Classics: English Progressive Rock and the Counterculture'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997): 48. {{ISBN|978-0-19-509888-4}}.</ref> as is [[Radiohead]]'s "[[Paranoid Android]]" (includes {{music|time|7|8}}).<ref>Radiohead (musical group). ''OK Computer'', vocal score with guitar accompaniment and tablature (Essex, England: IMP International Music Publications; Miami, Florida: Warner Bros. Publications; Van Nuys, California: Alfred Music, 1997): {{Page needed|date=March 2011}}. {{ISBN|0-7579-9166-1}}.</ref>
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[[Paul Desmond]]'s [[jazz]] composition "[[Take Five]]", in {{music|time|5|4}} time, was one of a number of irregular-meter compositions that [[The Dave Brubeck Quartet]] played. They played other compositions in {{music|time|11|4}} ("Eleven Four"), {{music|time|7|4}} ("[[Unsquare Dance]]"), and {{music|time|9|8}} ("[[Blue Rondo à la Turk]]"), expressed as {{music|time|2+2+2+3|8}}. "Blue Rondo à la Turk" is an example of a signature that, despite appearing merely compound triple, is actually more complex. Brubeck's title refers to the characteristic ''[[aksak]]'' meter of the Turkish ''[[karşılama]]'' dance.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Manuel|first1=Peter|title=Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: An Introductory Survey|date=1988|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780195063349|page=[https://archive.org/details/popularmusicsofn0000manu/page/131 131]|edition=rev.|url=https://archive.org/details/popularmusicsofn0000manu|url-access=registration}}</ref>

However, such time signatures are only unusual in most Western music. Traditional [[music of the Balkans]] uses such meters extensively. [[Bulgarian dances]], for example, include forms with 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 22, 25 and other numbers of beats per measure. These rhythms are notated as ''[[additive rhythm]]s'' based on simple units, usually 2, 3 and 4 beats, though the notation fails to describe the [[meter (music)|metric]] "time bending" taking place, or [[compound meter (music)|compound meters]]. See [[#Additive meters|Additive meters]] below.

'''Some video samples are shown below.'''
{| class="wikitable"
|[[File:Video-of-5o4-at-60-bpm.ogv|thumb|none|{{music|time|5|4}} at 60 [[BPM (music)|bpm]]]]
|[[File:Video-for-7o4.theora.ogv|thumb|{{music|time|7|4}} at 60 bpm]]
|[[File:Video-of-11o4-at-60-bpm.ogv|thumb|none|{{music|time|11|4}} at 60 bpm]]
|}