> Sorry, Will.  This was meant to go here. - John

> *****

> Moods/Modes of Common Time must have something in common or they
> woulnd't all be called "Common Time."

> If we ask how many notes of equal duration can fill a measure, the answer
> is

> 1 2 4 8 16 32 etc.

> for each of the modes of Common Time.

> If we ask where the accents fall, the answer is that the major accent
> falls at the beginning of the first note of a "2" measure, that a
> minor accent falls at the beginning of the second note of a "2"
> measure, and that these accents persist in the same places in "4",
> "8", "16", "32", and related compound measures (measures in which not
> all notes are of equal duration), except when altered by syncopation.

> Each of the above is true whether the time signature is 2/2, 4/4, or 2/4.

> These are the things that characterize time as "Common."

> 2/2, 4/4, and 2/4 represent increasing tempos.  In some of the older
> books there was at least one more mode of Common Time (yet another
> tempo).

> Any mode of Common Time can be beat in two (or in one, or in four, or
> in eight, etc.)

> It is debatable, I think, what the top numeral means.  Some take it
> to mean the number of beats in a measure, and that's OK with me.  A
> leader may or may not mark each of those beats.

> I prefer to think that the numerator gives instead the number of
> notes of the denominator type that it takes to fill a measure.  Thus,
> 2/4 means that two quarter notes will fill a measure, and 4/4 means
> that it takes four quarter notes.  This deals with notation, not
> beats or leading.

> Fundamentally, I see all the modes of Common Time as the same,
> differing only in tempo.

> John

> --
> john garst    ga...@chem.uga.edu