Re: Time signature differs from measure length

[Simon Albrecht]

Am 10.10.2014 um 21:53 schrieb Mark Stephen Mrotek:
> Simon,
>
> Regarding the snippet you provide, I would be confused in reading it. The "₵" 
> would tell me 2/2, yet there would be four semi-breves.
No, a semi-brevis is what we call „ganze Note” in Germany; the „halbe 
Note” would be a minim (the British English naming is the same as in 
latin). Thus, alla breve means ‘in units of a brevis’, that is 4/2 or 2/1.
And this has been common notation, in the 17th and 18th centuries there 
are countless examples. After all, the cut c comes from a time when 
there were no barlines at all, so it’s a matter of interpretation if 
modern editors choose to insert barlines every 2/2 or 4/2. And the 19th 
and 20th centuries often continue to refer to ancient music also in 
rhythmic concerns, so today there are both meanings, and you won’t be 
able to determine one measure’s duration from the cut c time signature 
alone.

Yours,
Simon