My musical tastes include pop songs, classical pieces, classical musicians playing covers of pop songs, and a cappella music (covers and original songs). I also like avant garde music, to a point. This type of music is often influenced by the music of different cultures. The other night, I listened to an Iraqi musician play some stirring music, and it had irregular meter. This means that you couldn't quite count "one-two-three-four" to count measures because the beats were more like this:
1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2
1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2
1-2-3, 1-2-3, 1-2
1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2
Tonight I came across a piece by Philip Glass, the second movement ("Abdulmajid") of his Symphony no. 4 "Heroes." That meter went like this:
1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2
1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2
1-2-3, 1-2, 1-2
1-2, 1-2, 1-2, 1-2
Determining such structure feels like solving a mystery, and I get excited when I figure it out. I am grateful for irregular meter in music. It may be weird and unconventional, but some good music can be made that way.
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