Talk:I Say a Little Prayer

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Time signature

"The verses are in 10/4 time (using successive measures of 4/4 + 2/4 + 4/4), and the chorus in 11/4 (using 4/4 + 4/4 + 3/4)."
I don't think that's strictly right. The chorus part, yes, but the verse isn't in 10/4 - it's three bars of 4/4 one of 2/4 and one more of 4/4, which is ultimately 18/4 or 9/4, but strictly speaking, you'd transcribe it much more simply (and it'd be easier to sight read) with time changes, so:
4/4 | ÷ | ÷ | 2/4 | 4/4 | ÷ | ÷ |
would be one measure of the verse.

There's a similarly odd time-sig related statement on the Burt Bacharach page in the style section, which reads:
"An example of his use of distinctive use of changing meter is found in "Promises, Promises" (from his score for the musical of the same name). In this song, he incorporates a very complex time signature sequence of |3/8|÷|4/8|3/8|÷|4/8|"

The example seems unusual to me, since I'd have thought this is the more well-known song, and more obviously unusual time signature (the changes in "Promises, Promises" - assuming the unknown author's transcription is correct (I can't recall the song, so I dunno) - could more easily be simplified 10/8 and accents applied on the first, fourth, seventh (and ninth) beats, instead of using such frequent time changes.

Time signatures are odd things, and frequently misunderstood. The aim is to use a signature or signatures whereby the natural downbeats are most obvious to the performer, whilst trying to strike a balance between accurately notating the rhythms and clarity of score. For this reason, I Say a Little Prayer is best notated as 4/4 with the one bar of 2/4 (since the heavy accents on those beats would otherwise confuse the performer going into the subsequent bar) whereas the example given of "Promises, Promises" would most likely look too cluttered and the frequency of time change (every three bars) would make sight-reading difficult, so would be better notated as a single bar of 10/8 per measure.

If anyone knows what I'm on about, could you double check what I've said and correct the entries as/if necessary? It may seem pedantic, but there's no point at all in the article mentioning irregular time signatures if they're notated wrong. And it *IS* a key stylistic trait of Bacharach, so worth mentioning. 82.11.194.227 (talk) 21:36, 21 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]