Monday, March 14, 2022

Minuet in π

Somehow, I only realized mid-day that today is Pi Day (3/14). Soon after, I had the idea of a dance in 3.14/4 time, but not so much time to work on it. However, I didn't want to wait a year! So I did get something roughed out in time to post it here, unvarnished as it is.

If you're a clumsy dancer like me, you might find that 3.14 beats per measure is just what you need. That extra 0.14 beats give you time to think about what comes next. I invented a quick notational symbol in which the pi-noteheads indicate notes that are stretched out to extend the third beat of each bar by 0.14 beats. And that's all I have time to say today!

[Quick research confirms as I expected that others have had this kind of idea, although I like how easy it is to hear here.]



UPDATE (on boring ol' 3/15): If you'd like to hear this with the downbeat stretched, this was my first effort. However, I found that this sounds too much like simple downbeat emphasis since 0.14 of a beat is not very much. I ended up preferring the idea of 3/4 time with the 0.14 essentially added at the end, although a case could be made that I should only have lengthened the final 8th note of such bars rather than the final two 8th notes.

No comments: