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Alla breve {{#invoke:IPA|main}}Template:Sndalso known as cut time or cut common timeTemplate:Sndis a musical meter notated by the time signature symbol Template:Music (a C) with a vertical line through it, which is the equivalent of Template:Music.<ref>Randel (2003), pp. 33, 241.</ref> The term is Italian for "on the breve", originally meaning that the beat was counted on the breve (double whole note).<ref>LilyPondTemplate:SndMusic Glossary v2.18.2 (http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/music-glossary/alla-breve)</ref>
Alla breve is a "simple-duple meter with a half-note pulse".<ref name="Duckworth">Duckworth, William (2009). A Creative Approach to Music Fundamentals, p. 38. Template:ISBN.</ref> The note denomination that represents one beat is the minim or half-note. There are two of these per bar, so that the time signature Template:Music may be interpreted as "two minim beats per bar". Alternatively this is read as two beats per measure, where the half note gets the beat.
The name "common time" refers to Template:Music, which has four beats to the bar, each of a quarter note (or crotchet).
Modern usageEdit
In contemporary use, alla breve suggests a fairly quick tempo. Thus, it is used frequently for military marches. From about 1600 to 1900, its meaning with regard to tempo varied, so it cannot always be taken to mean a quick tempo.<ref name=Randel33>Randel (2003), p. 33</ref> Using alla breve helps the musician read notes of short duration more cleanly with fewer beats.
Historical usageEdit
The term alla breve is derived from the system of mensural or proportional notation, in use prior to 1600, in which note values (and their symbols) were related according to the ratios 2:1 or 3:1. Originally it refers to a tactus or metrical pulse (now commonly referred to as the "beat") on the whole note (semibreve) exchanged for that on the double whole note (breve), in contexts when the breve is twice as long as the semibreve (proportio dubla).<ref name=Randel33/>
| Modern notationTemplate:Space | File:ModernBreveAndSemibreve.svg |
| White notation (15th–16th centuries)Template:Space |
File:MensuralBreveSemibreve.svg |
| Black notation (13th–15th centuries)Template:Space |
File:BlackMensuralBreveSemibreve.svg |
Early music notation in the West was developed by members of Christian religious orders, resulting in theological associations between music, its notation, and the terminology used to describe its form. Thus music in triple time was called tempus perfectum, owing to an association with the Holy Trinity and represented by the "perfect" circle, which has no beginning or end.
Music in duple time was conversely called tempus imperfectum, of which the symbol was the broken circle, Template:Music, which is still usedTemplate:Sndalthough it has come to mean Template:Music, or "common time", today. When cut through by a vertical line "Template:Music", it means Template:MusicTemplate:Snd"cut common time," or alla breve.<ref>Novello, John (1986). The Contemporary Keyboardist, p. 37. Template:ISBN</ref>
The use of the vertical line or stroke in a musical graphical symbol, as practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and now referred to by the modern term of "cut time", did not always have the same meaning as alla breve. It sometimes had other functions, including non-mensural ones.<ref>"Cut time" in Sadie (2001).</ref>
ExampleEdit
The following is an example with the same rhythm notated in Template:Music and in Template:Music:
File:Cut time as 4-4.png Rhythm in Template:Music followed by the same rhythm notated in Template:Music. Note there are more eighth and sixteenth notes in the Template:Music version versus eighth and quarter notes in the Template:Music version, one of the reasons Template:Music is typically easier to read at faster tempos.<ref>Schonbrun, Marc (2005). The Everything Reading Music Book, p. 56. Template:ISBN.</ref> |
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NotesEdit
SourcesEdit
- Randel, Don Michael (2003). Harvard dictionary of music, fourth edition. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Template:ISBN.
- Sadie, Stanley; John Tyrrell, eds. (2001). The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd edition. New York: Grove's Dictionaries. Template:ISBN.
- Novello, John (1986). The Contemporary Keyboardist, Hal Leonard Corporation, Template:ISBN.