Jon Gallant ([log in to unmask]) wrote:

>Thinking it over, I could recall only a single popular number I have ever
>heard which was in triple time: it was "Good Night Irene", fifty years
>ago, and that one was smuggled into the pop scene via folk music.  Can
>anyone think of another such example? Now, while "common time" may be the
>most frequently employed meter in classical music, there are plenty of
>movements, passages, or measures in 3/4, 3/8, 6/8, even 5/8 or 7/8, or
>complex meters.
>
>Accordingly, I offer this statistical definition of "classical" as opposed
>to "popular": music in which the probability (or frequency) of a measure
>not in common time is greater than 0.0000000001.

You're not comparing apples with apples.  If you were to listen to a Top-40
or Golden Oldies classical station (e.g.  Classic FM in Britain) I suspect
the incidence of everything except 4/4 and 3/4 would be far lower.

And if you were to listen to a more 'progressive' rock station the
incidence would be higher: off the top of my head I can thing of a few,
for example the Soft Machine (Volume 2, Hibou, Anemone and Bear is the
track IIRC) in 7/8 and the Grateful Dead's famous The Eleven so called
because, surprise!, it is in 11/4.

Deryk Barker
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