Dear Kay, The discussion has been about time signatures in the music of Dalza. Dalza's _Libro Quarto_ was the fourth book of lute music ever printed, and was published by Petrucci in 1508.
Instead of a time signature of 4/4, we sometimes use C. That C is really half a circle, not a letter C, and is one of the old signs of mesuration. (See below.) Nowadays we are used to dividing a semibreve into two minims, but in earlier music it was possible to divide a semibreve into three minims instead. Similarly you could divide a breve into two semibreves or into three semibreves. That's confusing, so they divised special signs (mensuration signs) to tell you how notes were to be divided up. There were many of these signs, and the system became very complicated, causing much confusion then and now, hence the discussion about how Dalza used them. The four basic signs were as follows: 1) A circle was used to show that each breve was to be divided into three semibreves. 2) A half-circle (looking like C) showed that each breve was divided into two semibreves. 3) A dot in the middle of the circle or half circle showed that each semibreve was to be divided into three minims. 4) If there was no dot, it meant that each semibreve was divided into two minims. So, for example, the C sign (half a circle without a dot) means that each breve is divided into two semibreves, and each semibreve is divided into two minims. Why did they divide notes into twos and threes? It works out the same as modern time signatures, producing different numbers of notes per bar, and different rhythms. Nowadays we use crotchets (quarter notes) and quavers (eighth notes) rather than semibreves and minims. The modern equivalent of those four signs would be as follows: 1) Circle with a dot: 9/8 2) Circle without a dot: 3/4 3) Half circle with a dot: 6/8 4) Half circle without a dot: 4/4 Special words were used to describe all this: 1) "Time" was used for the dividing of breves into semibreves. 2) "Prolation" was used for dividing semibreves into minims. 3) "Perfect" means dividing notes into three (because the Holy Trinity is perfect). 4) "Imperfect" means dividing notes into two. That means we could describe those four mensuration signs as follows: 1) Circle with a dot: perfect time and perfect prolation, i.e. breves divide into three; semibreves divide into three. 2) Circle without a dot: perfect time and imperfect prolation, i.e. breves divide into three; semibreves divide into two. 3) Half circle with a dot: imperfect time and perfect prolation, i.e. breves divide into two; semibreves divide into three. 4) Half circle without a dot: Imperfect time and imperfect prolation, i.e. breves divide into two; semibreves divide into two. Bernd referred to these things in Latin, as did many music theorists in the past, so, for example, he wrote "tempus perfectum" for "perfect time". There were many more mensuration signs than the four I've described. It's not always clear what they are supposed to mean, particularly when one sign follows another. I hope this gives you some idea of what they were talking about. Best wishes, Stewart McCoy. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kay" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, October 24, 2006 2:18 PM Subject: [LUTE] Re: Dalza > I know everyone said to ask questions if I'm a raw beginner...and I replied > that I don't know where to start because I know so little...so I'm gonna go > out on a limb and say what in world are you talking about?? To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
