Re: "Compound" meter

> On 6 Jan 2026, at 14:53, Kieren MacMillan <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Hi Hans,
> 
>>> 1. For 7/8 and sim., I like “irregular”.
>>> 2. For (3+4)/8 and sim., I like “additive”.
>> 
>> For irregular meters, it is common not to write out the plus sign, not at all, or just enough to provide suitable disambiguation. Thus, there is a difference between irregular meters and irregular time signatures.
>> 
>> In your example 2, both meters are irregular, but the second could be called, in addition, an additive time signature. In the example 1, the meter could be said to be 3+2+2 or 2+2+3, leaving it to the performer to infer it, say from the beaming or the type of tune.
> 
> Excellent differentiation!

This stuff is indeed tricky!

> Yes, “irregular time signature” probably doesn’t make any real semantic sense: 7/8 is a “regular” time signature denoting an *irregular* meter.  :)

I think that only 2, 3, and 4 would be considered regular. There are two interpretations of 4, 1+1+1+1 and 2+2, but one normally does not distinguish between them clearly. Incidentally, there is 2 = 1+1, called “in one”, as in Beethoven's 5th symphony.

So the time signature 7/8 normally indicates an underlying irregular meter whose metric accents have not been specified in the time signature, but normally by some other means.

It might instead be called a non-additive time signature, and (3+4)/8 additive, that is, notation as opposed to musical metric accents.

>> In the Bulgarian usage, “mixed” just means that the meter is shifting; it need not do that in a regular manner.
> 
> If the meter shifted regularly between 3/8+2/4 and 3/4, would it be accurate and clear to say:
>    3/8+2/4 is an additive time signature denoting an irregular meter (7/8);
>    3/4 is a simple triple meter denoting a regular meter (3/4); and
>    (3/8+2/4)(3/4) is a alternating [and “complex”?] time signature combination denoting a meter that shifts in a regular manner
> 
> ?

There is a difference between a mixed meter and a mixed melody. The focus here is on a mixed meter, but the mixed meter can change throughout the tune, and then it would be called mixed, too. (The Sedi Donka is completely regular in the mixed meter 7+7+11, where 7 and 11 are irregular meters, but other tunes change meter, irregular or not, and are called mixed.)

So I think 3/8+2/4 might be called a mixed time signature, but (3+2)/8 is an additive time signature, and then 5/8 would be a non-additive time signature. The two latter denote irregular meters, and the first a mixed meter.

>>> 7. “Compound” can be reserved for cases in which [to quote that Wikipedia page] “the note values specified by the bottom number are grouped into threes, and the upper number is a multiple of 3, such as 6, 9, or 12”, and “simple” can be reserved for the rest.
>> 
>> This terminology seems deeply ingrained in English usage.
> 
> Yes, that one seems fixed.

Hindemith, “Elementary Training”, speaks about “compound metric patterns”, not distinguishing them from the irregular ones, but because of this English usage, I think it is best to avoid the word “compound”.