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| Author | Topic: MEASURE |
jplot
Registered User
Registered:
11/18/2006 | posted: 11/18/2006 at 9:20:49 AM ET
As with several beginner books I have looked at you do not explain in any way just what the word MEASURE means.
I am still puzzled. Maybe I am just missing something somehwere. I could maybe assume it denotes a certain period of time but------
Thanks for any help to this dummy.
You do have a nice site here.
jvp
|  Pete
Registered User
From:
North Coast NSW, Australia
Registered:
3/20/2005 | posted: 11/18/2006 at 9:52:03 PM ET
A bar, in other terms. This is a function of the American/English difference in usage in Music worldwide. Thus, Semi-Breves, Minims, Crotchets and Quavers become Whole, Half, Quater and Eighth notes.
|  maintube
Registered User
Registered:
5/26/2004 | posted: 11/19/2006 at 2:20:17 AM ET
As stated before, the term "measure" is the same as "bar" in most other English speaking countries (possibly non-English, too). Did a little research and could find nothing that gave a reason the US uses the term rather than "bar". Just our quirky little of doing things different, I suppose. The only thing I can surmise is that a bar has length (literally) and a length is a measurement, so...................................
we started calling it a measure. Sorry I could not add more to the discussion besides more confusion.
| Pete
Registered User
From:
North Coast NSW, Australia
Registered:
3/20/2005 | posted: 11/19/2006 at 3:59:52 AM ET
Digging back, a thread http://www.datadragon.com/cgi-bin/pmessage.pl?action=beginpostreply&fid=edu&mid=244....and alsohttp://www.arthistoryclub.com/art_history/Bar_%28music%29
Another example of differing terms in English/US music is Root Note (US), and Tonic Note (English)
So what is a double bar called in the US?
| maintube
Registered User
Registered:
5/26/2004 | posted: 11/19/2006 at 11:12:45 PM ET
Actually I use root and tonic. Depends on what mood I'm in.
It's called a double bar here, too. Most beginning band books now refer to the measure line as a bar line, but still call the bar a measure. This to me is confusing. If we are going to call it a measure then call the line a measure line. To me bar is a jazz term. 12 bar blues, etc. Start 4 bars before letter D.
| Pete
Registered User
From:
North Coast NSW, Australia
Registered:
3/20/2005 | posted: 11/20/2006 at 3:29:36 AM ET
Stave/staff is another example, as is Note/tone, and:
Tone/Whole-step, and Semitone/half-step
In British (aka Aussie) musical terms, a tone is an interval of a major second, or one-sixth of an octave. Americans refer to this as a "whole-step".
A Semitone ,ie: half a tone, the interval of a minor second, one-twelfth of an octave, the smallest gap between two notes ..US usage is a "half-step".
While this difference in terms between countries may seen trivial, it creates real problems in a classroom, where some texts used as reference by students can, and do, contain either term, but only one is an acceptable exam answer. This is very much the case here in Australia, where both English and US cultural influnces apply, with the US in most cases dominant.
..and let's not forget the Germans, and their B/H transposition.
In Germany the note B is called H, and B flat is called B 
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