Most music is written in 4/4 meter, giving four beats per bar. Why are we inclined to prefer 4/4 time? Are there circuits in our brains that tick along in patterns of four?
Lots of debate here about whether rhythmic choice is nature or nurture, as you鈥檒l see below. Marching may be the origin of the 4/4 meter, but it is clearly only part of the story, for the reasons outlined in the final contribution 鈥� Ed
鈥� I think that it鈥檚 something of an exaggeration to say that most music is in 4/4, but a great deal of it is, hence its alternative name: 鈥渃ommon time鈥�. As a music teacher, I know many students find it much harder to play in 3/4 time than in 4/4, and that they have a strong tendency to insert an extra beat in 3/4, either by lengthening the last note of each bar or by leaving a gap after it.
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My own feeling, based on years of listening to students struggling rather than on any knowledge about the brain, is that we prefer 4/4 because we have two arms and two legs. March tempo comes naturally to us as an extension of the movement when we walk and swing our arms. 鈥淟eft, right, left, right鈥� easily becomes 鈥�1, 2, 3, 4鈥� and any music in 4/4 can be thought of as a modified version of march tempo.
I鈥檓 convinced that if we had three legs we would find 3/4 time much easier, but that might cause other problems.
Daphne Gadd, Cambridge, UK
鈥� Popular music, be it either dance or song, does not have to be in 4/4 time. One need only look at collections of folk music to see an array of different time signatures. From the Basques to the Bulgarians you can find 5/8 and 7/16 time signatures.
In Latin America, the characteristic sesquialtera rhythm requires juxtaposition of 3/4 and 6/8 time. And let鈥檚 not start on Indian and African rhythmic complexities, which far exceed anything that can be found in the unsubtleties of western pop and rock music.
The reason 4/4 time became entrenched in popular western music during the 20th century is through the influence of jazz, which owes part of its origins to the marching bands that played at funerals for black people in the southern states of the US. Most marches are in duple or quadruple time. Since then, the relentless and ubiquitous promotion of modern pop music has perhaps blunted many people鈥檚 appreciation of other time signatures.
鈥淭he reason 4/4 time became entrenched in popular western music during the 20th century is through the influence of jazz from the southern US states鈥�
Ironically, in the light of its 4/4 influence elsewhere, jazz retained its diversity with, for example, jazz waltzes, Dave Brubeck鈥檚 Take Five (which is in 5/4 time) and many other virtuosi using still more exotic time signatures such as 11/8 or even expressing two different time signatures simultaneously.
Historically, 3/4 or triple time has probably been more significant. The 19th century favoured the waltz and , in the 18th century dance music was based on minuets which are played in triple time, and baroque orchestral overtures that began in slow quadruple time but ended in fast triple time.
鈥淗istorically 3/4 time has probably been more significant. The 19th century favoured the waltz, and in the 18th century minuets were also in triple time鈥�
The favourite dance of Charles II was in 6/4 time, Louis XIV of France loved the , Elizabeth I鈥檚 favourite dance was the , all of which are 鈥� like Greensleeves 鈥� in triple time. Going back to the Middle Ages, church music was written in triple time because it was associated with the Holy Trinity.
So there is no natural predisposition for 4/4 time. It is, in fact, an illusion forced upon us by pervasive modes of contemporary western culture.
Ian Gammie, Corda Music Publications, St Albans, Hertfordshire, UK
鈥� If you were living in Vienna in the mid-19th century 鈥� the era of Strauss waltzes 鈥� you might well have thought that most music was written in 3/4 time. Both 3/4 and 6/8 times are very common in European classical music, just as they are in classical Indian music.
All evidence suggests that these rhythms are part of cultural inheritance rather than determined by hard-wiring in the human brain. Almost all music derives ultimately from folk song and dance (much of Bach鈥檚 music is based on dance rhythms) and presumably various rhythms go in and out of fashion. Supporters of the hard-wired brain theory would need to explain the popularity of the often complex time signatures of music from all around the world.
James Hamilton-Paterson, Timelkam, Austria