Bar (music) - Wikipedia

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bar_(music)

Bar (music)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In musical notation, a bar (or

measure) is a segment of time
corresponding to a specific number of
beats in which each beat is represented
Types of bar lines
by a particular note value and the
boundaries of the bar are indicated by
vertical bar lines. Dividing music into bars provides regular reference points to pinpoint locations
within a piece of music. It also makes written music easier to follow, since each bar of staff
symbols can be read and played as a batch.[1] Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same
length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning
of the score by the time signature. In simple time, (such as 3
4), the top figure indicates the number
of beats per bar, while the bottom number indicates the note value of the beat (the beat has a quarter
3 example).
note value in the 4
The word bar is more common in British English, and the word measure is more common in
American English, although musicians generally understand both usages. In American English,
although the words bar and measure are often used interchangeably, the correct use of the word
'bar' refers only to the vertical line itself, while the word 'measure' refers to the beats contained
between bars.[2] In international usage, it is equally correct to speak of bar numbers and measure
numbers, e.g. bars 916 or mm. 916. Along the same lines, it is wise to reserve the abbreviated
form bb. 34 etc. for beats only; bars should be referred to by name in full.
The first metrically complete measure within a piece of music is called bar 1 or m. 1. When the
piece begins with an anacrusis (an incomplete measure at the head of a piece of music), bar 1 or
m. 1 is the following measure.

Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6

Bar
History
Hypermeasure
See also
References
Further reading

Bar

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Originally, the word bar came from the vertical lines drawn through the staff to mark off metrical
units and not the bar-like (i.e., rectangular) dimensions of a typical measure of music. In British
English, these vertical lines are called bar, too, but often the term bar line is used in order to make
the distinction clear. A double bar line (or double bar) can consist of two single bar lines drawn
close together, separating two sections within a piece, or a bar line followed by a thicker bar line,
indicating the end of a piece or movement. Note that double bar refers not to a type of bar (i.e.,
measure), but to a type of bar line. Another term for the bar line denoting the end of a piece of
music is music end.[3]
A repeat sign (or, repeat bar line[4]) looks like the music end, but it has two dots, one above the
other, indicating that the section of music that is before is to be repeated. The beginning of the
repeated passage can be marked by a begin-repeat sign; if this is absent the repeat is understood to
be from the beginning of the piece or movement. This begin-repeat sign, if appearing at the
beginning of a staff, does not act as a bar line because no bar is before it; its only function is to
indicate the beginning of the passage to be repeated.
In music with a regular meter, bars function to indicate a periodic accent in the music, regardless of
its duration. In music employing mixed meters, bar lines are instead used to indicate the beginning
of rhythmic note groups, but this is subject to wide variation: some composers use dashed bar lines,
others (including Hugo Distler) have placed bar lines at different places in the different parts to
indicate varied groupings from part to part.
Igor Stravinsky said of bar lines:
The bar line is much, much more than a mere accent, and I don't believe that it can be
simulated by an accent, at least not in my music.[5]
Bars and bar lines also indicate grouping: rhythmically of beats within and between bars, within
and between phrases, and on higher levels such as meter.

History
The earliest barlines, used in keyboard and vihuela music in the 15th and 16th centuries, didn't
reflect a regular meter at all but were only section divisions, or in some cases marked off every
beat.
Barlines began to be introduced into ensemble music in the late 16th century but continued to be
used irregularly for a time. Not until the mid-17th century were barlines used in the modern style
with every measure being the same length, and they began to be associated with time signatures.[6]
Modern editions of early music that was originally notated without barlines sometimes use a
mensurstrich as a compromise.

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Hypermeasure

Hypermeter: 4 beat measure, 4 measure hypermeasure, and 4

hypermeasure verses. Hyperbeats in red.

A hypermeasure, large-scale or high-level measure, or measure-group is a metric unit in which,

generally, each regular measure is one beat (actually hyperbeat) of a larger meter. Thus a beat is to
a measure as a measure/hyperbeat is to a hypermeasure. Hypermeasures must be larger than a
notated bar, perceived as a unit, consist of a pattern of strong and weak beats, and along with
adjacent hypermeasures, which must be of the same length, create a sense of hypermeter. The term
was coined by Edward T. Cone in Musical Form and Musical Performance (New York: Norton,
1968),[7] and is similar to the less formal notion of a phrase.

See also
Bar-line shift
Tala (music)
Wazn

References
1. ChordWizard Software. "www.howmusicworks.org". Retrieved 11 September 2012.
2. Read, Gardner. (1979) Music Notation: A Manual of Modern Practice, 2nd ed., New York: Taplinger
Publishing Company, p.183.
3. http://www.dolmetsch.com/musicalsymbols.htm Chart of Musical Symbols
4. Nickol, Peter (2008). Learning to Read Music, p.105. ISBN 1-84528-278-7.
5. Winold, Allen (1975). "Rhythm in Twentieth-Century Music", Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music.
Wittlich, Gary (ed.). Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: PrenticeHall. ISBN 0-13-049346-5.
6. Harvard Dictionary of Music, Second ed. (1972), "Barline"

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7. Stein, Deborah (2005). Engaging Music: Essays in Music Analysis, p.18-19 and "Glossary", p.329. New
York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-517010-5.

Further reading
Cone, Edward T. (1968). Musical Form and Musical Performance. ISBN 0-393-09767-6.
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