Tag Archives: theory

Advanced Mathematics 202:
Decimal Music

by Dæv Tremblay

The French Revolution brought humanity many things, among which are the values of liberty, equality, and secularism. However, in their hot-blooded revolt, they also brought the widespread use of the decimal system, taking the place of the old-fashioned Carolingian system, which resembled somewhat the Imperial system of today’s USA. They even thought of bringing up decimal time, and a decimal calendar, where the twelve months of the year each had three “weeks” of ten days. At the moment of writing these lines, we are Octidi the 28th of Messidor (Monday, July 16th, 2018). Each of these days would … Read more

Negative Time Signatures (a Response to Adam Neely and 12tone)

by Dæv Tremblay

Sorry, Adam. To be fair, I’m probably wrong, too…

Youtubers Adam Neely and 12tone recently posted videos about a concept they call “negative time signatures” (click on their names to see their respective videos). There is certainly no consensus on this, as far as music theory goes, and there maybe never will, but it’s an interesting hypothetical question nonetheless. I’m writing this post because I think I have a different way of seeing this concept from Adam and 12tone’s. It’s not better, it’s not worse, just different, as there is no widely accepted definition of the term. But before introducing … Read more