Thomas Stevens

Changing Meter Studies

The studies with alternating time signatures are practical exercises in changing time signatures as they occur in contemporary literature.

Studies I-XIV are regular metrical sequences, those from XV-XXI irregular. The time signatures used consist of no more than six units. If more were used, it would only be a matter of joining together smaller units.

The main emphasis was placed on the problem of the bars, so I have tried, where possible, to use the basic counting units of the bars, rather than introducing complicated subdivisions into the given time signatures. The counting units remain the same in all studies.

The following page of examples illustrates not only how to keep to these bar units, but also shows how the different bars can be linked together correctly. To this end, examples I, III and X show the conventional conducting signs that Pierre Boulez used in 'Le Marteau sans Maître' to distinguish between even and odd metrical movements (I-III) and/or the subdivisions of intermediate bars (X).

The main concern is the change of time signature: the studies are therefore not technically demanding and have been constructed in such a way that it should seem 'natural' and logical.

Thomas Stevens (1978)