Looking for art music in 15/8 meter?!
Question: Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some examples of music in 15/8 - it can be short sections or entire works, as long as one bar is in compound quintuple meter. I have been thinking and looking over scores all night trying to prepare to teach asymmetrical meter in my theory class this week, and the only thing I've come up with for this rare meter is Debussy's "Fetes" from the Nocturnes.
I can find dozens of 5/4 examples, but the triple subdivision seems to be ultra-rare. I'm hoping to keep this in the "art music" realm, as I already have plenty of examples from rock music (Tool, Rush, Yes, etc.). Thanks for your help!
Answers: Hi everyone,
I'm looking for some examples of music in 15/8 - it can be short sections or entire works, as long as one bar is in compound quintuple meter. I have been thinking and looking over scores all night trying to prepare to teach asymmetrical meter in my theory class this week, and the only thing I've come up with for this rare meter is Debussy's "Fetes" from the Nocturnes.
I can find dozens of 5/4 examples, but the triple subdivision seems to be ultra-rare. I'm hoping to keep this in the "art music" realm, as I already have plenty of examples from rock music (Tool, Rush, Yes, etc.). Thanks for your help!
Kucletus, the following have 15/8 sections in them:
Elliott Carter - String quartet No. 2
Claude Debussy - Fetes; Rondes de printemps; String Quartet
Paul Hindemith - When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd.
Musician, composer, director.
What a question! I want to know the answer when you find it! There are some crazy meters in a lot of steel/drum percussion pieces. Look for works commissioned by universities. They have some crazy stuff!
Exotic question!
Edit: A LOT of non-classical composers are musically trained. Even some rock musicians.
In that Debussy work for Flute, Viola and Harp (Sonate pour flute, alto, et harpe) has 21/8 but I have yet to see 15/8. What do you mean Art Music because the definition is VERY hazy. Some may include avant-garde rock music and Jazz (usally only the jazz in the fourties through seventies that really was art).
So rock is never art music? How bout Jazz? How bout Avant-Garde? What qualifies Art Music (bet you can tell I hate this term)
I suspect that the 15/8 is rare not because of what it is, but for simplification; why wouldn't one write three measures of 5/8 instead? (it's easier to count if you don't have to use your toes.) :-)
You could use the second movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor, Pathétique, Op. 74 which is in 5/4 (but thought of as a waltz?)
I think Heitor Villa-Lobos has some orchestral-saxophone piece in 7/8 or 7/4
Other examples, come from jazz and progressive rock
16/8 (actually alternating 7/8 9/8) Dave Brubeck's "Blue Rondo a la Turk" (or is that a Paul Desmond tune?)
The progressive rock/symphonic rock band Renaissance has several examples of odd time signatures within their music.
? "Prologue" has a fourteen measure scat section in 12/8 followed by two in 6/4 before returning to common time
? "Mother Russia" has a bridge that (follow this) goes:
|| 3/8 | 6/4 | 4/4 | | | 3/8 | 6/4 | 3/8 | 5/4 | 3/8 | 4/4 | 3/8 | 3/4 | 3/8 | 2/4 | 3/8 | 4/4 ||
? "Can You Hear Me" is written in 12/8
? "Midas Man" has a || 3/4 | 4/4 | | | 2/4 | 4/4 | | 3/4 | 4/4 | | 2/4 | 4/4 || section
? "The Day of the Dreamer" has a fairly long instrumental section in 7/8 punctuated by a few measures of 6/8
Source(s)
The Renaissance song book, transcriptions by Donald Sasin. Warner Bros. Music ??? 1978 (out of print)
Hindemith, Symphony in Bb for Band, movement 2
the first 15/8 meter appears at measure 57.. i think. somewhere around there.
it's an amazing piece! especially since i much rather perfer orchestra over the band repertoire, but the hindemith is amazing :]
an excerpt from the opera "Peter Grimes" by Benjamin Britten.
In Act II, there is a church service going on in the background, while the main characters are sitting outside.
At one point, Britten has written an antiphonal chant- call and answer- which is notated in 15/8.
It's carefully notated in the piano/vocal score of the opera, so if your music department library stretches into modern opera, you'll find it there. It's hard to hear it on a recording, so I'd advise looking up either the piano/vocal or the full score. Also contains a wonderful fugue in 7/4 towards the end of the first Act as well.