Alla breve
Alla breve also known as cut time or cut common timeis a musical meter notated by the time signature symbol with a vertical line through it, which is the equivalent of, though it has been used to denote. The term is Italian for "on the breve", originally meaning that the beat was counted on the breve.
Alla breve is a "simple-duple meter with a half-note pulse". The note denomination that represents one beat is the minim or half-note. There are two of these per bar, so that the time signature may be interpreted as "two minim beats per bar". Alternatively this is read as two beats per measure, where the half note gets the beat.
The name "common time" refers to, which has four beats to the bar, each of a quarter note.
Modern usage
In contemporary use, alla breve suggests a fairly quick tempo. Thus, it is used frequently for military marches. From about 1600 to 1900, its meaning with regard to tempo varied, so it cannot always be taken to mean a quick tempo. Using alla breve helps the musician read notes of short duration more cleanly with fewer beats.Historical usage
The term alla breve is derived from the system of mensural or proportional notation, in use prior to 1600, in which note values were related according to the ratios 2:1 or 3:1. Originally it refers to a tactus or metrical pulse on the whole note exchanged for that on the double whole note, in contexts when the breve is twice as long as the semibreve.| Modern notation | class=skin-invert-image |
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Early music notation in the West was developed by members of Christian religious orders, resulting in theological associations between music, its notation, and the terminology used to describe its form. Thus music in triple time was called tempus perfectum, owing to an association with the Holy Trinity, and represented by the "perfect" circle, which has no beginning or end.
Music in duple time was conversely called tempus imperfectum, of which the symbol was the broken circle, , which is still usedalthough it has come to mean, or "common time", today. When cut through by a vertical line "", it means "cut common time," or alla breve.
The use of the vertical line or stroke in a musical graphical symbol, as practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and now referred to by the modern term of "cut time", did not always have the same meaning as alla breve. It sometimes had other functions, including non-mensural ones.