Daily Random Thoughts

Feb 15, 2010 06:20

(via LoudTwitter)

  • 16:04 In #Pcon OSOGD room party conversation just now, I misheard "sharp pointy objects" as "sharp pony objects." (*ears perk up* Oooh! Unicorns!) #
  • 22:22 At the age of 32, I have just now (for the first time) experienced something most people will never get to do: Dance to a song in 7/4 time. #

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comingin2day February 15 2010, 15:45:45 UTC
7/4 time, Für Elise, Ludwig van Beethoven's (1770-1827) a perfect example. Actually, there are some Irish jigs and western country line dances that do have those fast tempos and do them quite often and even faster. So, at 32 you haven't fallen over with a heart attack, very impressive. Sounds like you had fun.

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copperwolf February 15 2010, 16:28:53 UTC
Für Elise is in 7/4 time? That's news to me.

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circuit_four February 15 2010, 18:52:31 UTC
"The piece is in 3/8 and begins with a right-hand theme accompanied by arpeggios in the left hand; the harmonies used are A minor and E major."

I'm no music theorist; am I missing something here?

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comingin2day February 15 2010, 19:49:47 UTC
there is 7 counts in the 3/8...


... )

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rax February 15 2010, 20:01:33 UTC
I expect circuit_four was genuinely wondering if ey was missing something and this is just a "there's no voice tone on the internet" problem. I've spent the last five minutes staring at the sheet music and I'm also not seeing groupings of 7; obviously there's no obligation but if you have a moment I'd also love to hear an explanation of where the count is. It would give me something new to appreciate in the piece. :)

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comingin2day February 16 2010, 02:05:16 UTC
there are two lines, the music is played by two different hands, if you notice the keys are not hitting at the same time but played individually, so if you line them up in the second brackets, top and bottom; you are getting 7 keys of music in 4 counts. Arpeggios is individually played keys using the left hand. In A minor and E major ( ... )

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baxil February 16 2010, 19:31:55 UTC
Thank you for the extra explanation but I think there's some confusion here about terminology.

When I say "7/4 time" I am referring to time signature (as are the other commenters here on this thread). The Wikipedia page you originally linked to states (correctly) that Fur Elise has a time signature of 3/8 (every measure contains the equivalent of three 1/8 notes; in this case, six 1/16s). Time signature counts how many "beats" you get per measure (or bar, if you prefer). It does not count the number of notes, because if you have notes of different lengths then the number of notes by itself tells you nothing about the rhythmic pattern of the song.

The reason dancing to a piece in 7/4 time was so notable is that we're most used to beats in groups of fours - and sometimes groups of threes. Having a song in a complex time signature is rare enough in itself, actually dancing to it is almost unheard of and takes some adjustment.

If there's any remaining confusion, let's clear it up, but I'd prefer that we talk about something else

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comingin2day February 16 2010, 19:37:39 UTC
All I meant for was to say I understood, that is pretty Damn Fast dancing. Actually, dancing to a very fast beat a repetitive step is pretty fun and I have found much pleasure and laughter in attempting a faster speed myself with my examples.

So, I am glad you had fun.

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ext_30283 February 17 2010, 04:38:46 UTC

A time signature is not a tempo marking.

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