Radiohead and Philosophy - Brandon W. Forbes [106]
The rhythm of the song seems skewed. As it plays, you might ask, “why does it sound like the notes are played a split-second too late?” It’s because the song has a complex time signature that leads to rhythms that are out of joint with those of our ordinary experience. This is what is so compelling about “Pyramid Song.” Its timing, rhythm, and beat are literally out of sync with the way we ordinarily experience the world.
Rhythm and Time Signatures
A debate rages, mostly in the blogosphere, about whether “Pyramid Song” has an odd time signature or whether the time signature changes through the course of the song. Amateur and professional musicians, pundits, and fans have weighed in. One view is that the timing is plain old 4/4, but with syncopated stress points. 4/4 time is the most common signature you find in music, with four quarter notes in a measure (the rhythmic grouping of the song). This is the strong, regular beat of the Christmas favorite “Jingle Bells.” Normally, each of the sounds that make up the rhythm of singing ji / ngle / bells/ (rest) / receives equal emphasis. But you could syncopate “Jingle Bells” by putting stress on one of the beats and singing, for example, ji / NGLE / bells / (rest) /. This creates an unexpected rhythm. Bloggers who favor this theory about “Pyramid Song” argue that Radiohead does not fully deviate from popular music timing formulas, but, simply creates a disturbing impression by stressing beats we are not accustomed to hearing stressed.
But many disagree. People with classical musical backgrounds typically approach “Pyramid Song” like conspiracy theorists. The complicated formulas they concoct seem almost as other-wordly as the song itself. One theory holds that the song’s timing is 8/8 (eight eighth notes per measure) but with a grouping of notes into pairs and trios. The first three notes are heard as if they belong to a group of three that are followed by a second group and then, finally, two notes that end the sequence and tie all the notes together. Another elaborate theory argues that the song can be broken down into clusters of sixteen eighth-notes, 16/8, with the notes arranged in 3 / 3 / 4 / 3 / 3 groupings. Both theories have some merit, depending on how you group and arrange the sounds yourself. Do you hear things in small clusters or can you hear larger groups of sounds and their inter-relations?
Perhaps the oddest theory you can find is one that argues that the timing itself alters periodically throughout the song. This theory claims the signature varies from a 5/4 time signature to a 4/4 followed by another 4/4 grouping and ends with 3/4. In the first grouping you find five quarter-notes arranged together, then two groups of four quarter-notes establishing a rhythm and then a shift to three quarter-notes.
Unfortunately, Radiohead has been either unwilling or unable to settle the debate. In an interview, Yorke stated that the song has no definite time signature, that it is simply felt as the song is played. This makes sense of the effects the song has and suggests that different listeners may in fact hear the song differently—that the debate about time signature rests on the subjectivity of perception Yorke points to. If you tend to see life as a sequence of small clusters of events with strange emphases, a simpler time signature is what you will recognize in the song. If you see life as a larger sequence with regular patterns and rhythms, you will hear a more complicated time signature. If you see life as a constantly shifting series of events, some smaller, some larger, and recognize the cyclicality of these events, you will hear shifting time signatures.
How Radiohead uses time and rhythm in “Pyramid Song” raises questions about how time affects our experiences and perceptions and points us toward the relationships between the rhythms of our lives and the events