Nirvana · In Utero

Pennyroyal Tea

Pennyroyal Tea is in C sharp minor at 112.5 beats per minute.

Tempo

113 BPM · Moderatomedian of 163 analyses · 112.2–113.6 across the middle eight tenths

Key: C♯ minor4 sharps · the key most of the analyses agreed on
Agreement: 93%share of analyses that agreed
Analyses: 163people who ran the extractor
One beat: 533.3milliseconds, 60,000 ÷ BPM
Tuning: 440.8Hz · +3 cents from A 440
Dynamics: 7.47dB the level wanders from its average
Loudness: 0.433Essentia's 0–1 scale, not dB
Danceability: 0.93Essentia's danceability, 0–3

Source: AcousticBrainz, dump of 2022-06-23 (CC0) · MusicBrainz core data, 2026-09-17 (CC0) · how each number is measured. Measured up to 23.06.2022 — AcousticBrainz stopped collecting in 2022, so nothing released after that date is here.

What the numbers say

163 independent analyses of this recording were submitted to AcousticBrainz. Most of them — 93% — put it in C sharp minor, a key signature of 4 sharps. The tempo printed above is the median of the 163 readings; 99% of them land within 2% of it, and the middle eight tenths of them run from 112.2 to 113.6 BPM.

At 112.5 BPM one beat lasts 533.3 milliseconds, so a sixteenth note is 133.3 ms and a dotted eighth 400 ms — the delay times for this recording. Counted half as fast it is 56.3 BPM, counted twice as fast 225. A score would mark that Moderato, by the ranges this site uses.

The analyses put the reference pitch of the recording at 440.8 Hz, which is 3 cents above concert A at 440 Hz — close enough to standard that a tuner would not argue. That is a fact about this transfer of the music, not about how it was played.

The dynamic complexity of the recording measures 7.47 dB: that is how far the level wanders from its own average, so a small number means a loud, flat master and a large one means a recording that still breathes. Its average loudness is 0.433 on Essentia's 0-to-1 scale, which is not decibels and is not comparable to a streaming service's number.

10 other recordings here are in C sharp minor; the ones listed below are the closest in tempo.

Beats per bar are not in this dataset. AcousticBrainz's analysis reports a tempo, a key and a loudness, and no time signature at all, so this page does not print one — a 4/4 here would be a guess dressed as a measurement.

Keys that fit with C♯ minor

Each of these differs from C♯ minor by at most one accidental, or shares its tonic. That is the whole of what a mixing wheel encodes; here the relations are named instead of numbered.

Delay times at 113 BPM

Note value	Beats	Milliseconds	Hertz
Whole note	4	2133.3	0.47
Half note	2	1066.7	0.94
Dotted quarter	1.5	800	1.25
Quarter note (one beat)	1	533.3	1.87
Quarter triplet	0.667	355.6	2.81
Dotted eighth	0.75	400	2.5
Eighth note	0.5	266.7	3.75
Eighth triplet	0.333	177.8	5.63
Dotted sixteenth	0.375	200	5
Sixteenth note	0.25	133.3	7.5
Sixteenth triplet	0.167	88.9	11.25
Thirty-second note	0.125	66.7	15

Half time 56.3 BPM · double time 225 BPM. Every row is one beat (533.3 ms) times the fraction in the second column.

Closest in key and tempo

Recordings in C sharp minor, ordered by how near their tempo is to 113 BPM. A calculation, not a recommendation.

All songs in C sharp minor All songs at 113 BPM C♯ minor at 110–119 BPM Nirvana

MusicBrainz collapses 209 recording ids into this one. Recording id 4741ce2a-636c-4eaa-9507-eb1c37ad9c5d.