RE: Time signature differs from measure length

[Mark Stephen Mrotek]

I stand corrected.

Mark

-----Original Message-----
From: Simon Albrecht [mailto:address@hidden 
Sent: Friday, October 10, 2014 1:23 PM
To: Mark Stephen Mrotek; 'lilypond-user'
Subject: Re: Time signature differs from measure length

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