Re: Issue 3286: add single-C time signature style (issue 164830043 by nine.fierce.ballads <at> gmail.com)

[Benkő Pál]

> I don’t recall that anybody so far has been able to explain how they know a 
> piece is in 4/2 when it is denoted cut-C.  Can you?

as well as knowing whether a customary C (cut or uncut) signals 2/2 or
4/4 (or 1/1, see below).
I maintain that the second Kyrie from Bach's Mass in B minor  is in
4/2; I'm hesitating about the Gratias,
leaning towards 4/2; I'd not oppose calling the Credo rather 2/1 than 4/2.
(for fun look at Patrem omnipotentem: it's in cut, single-digit 2.)

> I found a little support for the idea that double cut-C is being used as 2/1 
> in the hymnal I have.  Consider songs 2 and 3 from this 1844 hymnal: 
> http://books.google.ca/books?id=t341RA7NAcIC .
>
> In that book they are in 2/1.  (Would you have called them 4/2 if not for 
> that?  I probably would have.)  The hymnal I have contains those two songs 
> with identical music, but denoted with double cut-C time; and there are 
> others I recognize, but I haven’t checked them as closely.

look at song 4 (8, 12, 19, ...): it's in cut C, but I'd call it 1/1,
if the previous ones were 2/1.
I'd say that all songs are in the (sort of) same metre, but songs
where all lines have
an even number of semibreves, are barred by two, the others by one, and
the time signature just reflects this barring.

p