Triple Metre

Triple metre (or triple meter, also known as triple time) is a musical metre characterized by a primary division of 3 beats to the bar, usually indicated by 3 (simple) or 9 (compound) in the upper figure of the time signature, with 3/4, 3/2, and 3/8 being the most common examples. The upper figure being divisible by three does not of itself indicate triple metre; for example, a time signature of 6/8 usually indicates compound duple metre, and similarly 12/8 usually indicates compound quadruple.

It is reasonably common in ballads and classical music but much less so in traditions such as rock & roll and jazz. The most common time in rock, blues, country, funk, and pop is quadruple. Although jazz writing has become more adventurous since Dave Brubeck's seminal Time Out, the majority of jazz and jazz standards are still in straight quadruple time.

Triple time is common in formal dance styles, for example the waltz, the minuet and the mazurka.

Movements in triple time characterized the more adventurous approach of 17th and 18th Century music, for example the Sarabande, which originated in Latin America and appeared in Spain early in the 16th Century, became a standard movement in the suite during the baroque period. The baroque sarabande is commonly a slow triple rather than the much faster Spanish original, consistent with the courtly European interpretations of many Latin dances. The sarabande form was revived in the 20th Century by composers such as Debussy, Satie and, in a different style, Vaughan Williams (in Job) and Benjamin Britten (in Simple Symphony)

Tunes in triple metre tend to be more lyrical and less martial than those in duple meter. Consequently, for example, triple meter is rare in national anthems -- the national anthems of the United Kingdom and United States being two notable exceptions.

In Mozart's Requiem triple time is used in the Recordare, Hostias and Agnus Dei as a contrast to the more robust two- and four-in-a-bar of the rest of the work, giving these movements a more reflective feel.