tractakid wrote:I heard Baby's in Black as 6/8 on first listening. (duple compound, 2/4 with triplets) I googled the sheet music and that said it was in 12/8 (quadruple compound- 4/4 with triplets) with a 6/8 bar inserted every now and then.
As for Unchained Melody, I was convinced it was 6/8, in agreement with you. Then I looked that up and it's also in 12/8.
*confused*
I also don't really get the difference between 4/4, 2/2, 2/4, they're all just too similar to each warrant existence!
Then when you look at odd time signatures, it all just breaks down into groupings of 2 and 3. 5/4 is 3+2 or 2+3. 7/8 is 4+3 or 3+4- then do you break the 4s into 2s?
There is an important point here - regardless of what time signature someone writes on the score, different people will HEAR it differently. I just ran through Unchained Melody in my head in 12/8, and I can see where people are coming from with that. 12/8 ties in nicely with the lyrics, but the music suggests 6/8.
I searched the internet and found several sites, all of which quoted it in different time signatures! I'm not even sure that the writer of a song can pin it down to a fixed time signature sometimes, especially when it's possible to perform the song in either time signature, giving it a slightly different sound each time.
Baby's in Black in 12/8 ... *runs through it in head* OK, this works too if you break it down into four lots of 3/4 before you "start again", but once again I can also hear it in 6/8. It's another example of a case where it doesn't really matter which time signature it's in, so long as we agree that the top figure has to be a multiple of three, as the song is a waltz.
Conclusion: it's not an exact science - time signatures have some fluidity, with the characteristics of an individual performance contributing to the actual numbers we quote. 3/4, 6/8, 12/8 - it's all much of muchness really, and all depends on where you hear the "divisions" in the music.
As to your other question about compound time signatures ...
7/8 - listen to "Money" by Pink Floyd. You'll also have noticed that "Heart of Glass" by Blondie has a bit in one chorus where it appears to miss a beat - that particular section was in 7/8 too.
With "Money", the actual notes being played in the bass riff suggest a grouping of 3+4, with the first three beats covering the first FOUR notes, and the last four beats covering the final four notes. So we have eight notes in seven beats. The reason for this is that the second and third notes of the bass riff are "half-notes", so they take up the space of one beat.
Of course, some pieces of music, especially classical music, use complex time signatures, with some pieces changing signature every few bars. With no drum beat present it's often difficult to follow the time, so you tend not to think about it when listening. It's only when you look at the score that you realise the composer must have drunk too much coffee before sitting down to write it ...
just re-read that rather longish post