I am always wondering what the origins of certain conventions we take for granted are. I believe that most are born out of some explainable reason. One example of this is why we use a base 10 numerical system, which was explained to me as having to do with us having 10 fingers, which naturally led us to count to 10 and then “start over” with 11 etc. If we had had 12 fingers we would most certainly used a base 12 numerical system.
So, as a musician, I’ve wondered for quite a while why 4/4 time seems so natural to us, and seems to appear in so many cultures around the world. As well, why do we like to group our musical ideas in packets of 2′s, 4′s, 8′s, and 16′s etc? The answer came to me recently while I was on a run.
I had my keys in my pocket as I ran and I noticed that with every step my keys were producing alternating tones. Something like “cling, clang, cling, clang” over and over. Then it occurred to me that this rhythm, this very elemental musical motif based on 2/4 time, was arising out of my alternating footfalls. Humans have been walking around this world for the past 100,000 years, it makes sense that a repetitive 2/4 music motif would be reflected in their music. It becomes easy to see why this led to patterns based on 4 beats and 8 beats and 16 beats, all had a common denomination of 2.
I’ve not studied music history deeply, or musicology, in fact, I don’t even know what field would have tried to explain this phenomenon. I can’t prove that people 50,000 years ago were grouping their music in 2′s and 4′s. I am just putting forward my “back yard astronomer” explanation of why music feels so natural to us in denominations of 2. It’s built upon thousands of years of walking!
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