Compound Time Signatures
In compound meter, subdivisions of the main beat (the upper number) are split into three, not two, equal parts, so that a dotted note (half again longer than a regular note) becomes the beat unit. Compound time signatures are named as if they were simple time signatures in which the one-third part of the beat unit is the beat, so the top number is commonly 6, 9 or 12 (multiples of 3). The lower number is most commonly an 8 (an eighth-note): as in 9
8 or 12
8.
Read more about this topic: Additive Meter
Famous quotes containing the words compound, time and/or signatures:
“He tries by a peculiar speech to speak
The peculiar potency of the general,
To compound the imagination’s Latin with
The lingua franca et jocundissima.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
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—Arlie Hochschild (20th century)
“I am not a very sentimental man; and the best sentiment I can think of is, that if you collect the signatures of all persons who are no less distinguished than I, you will have a very undistinguishing mass of names.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)