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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 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 musical composition. It also makes written music easier to follow, since each bar of staff symbols can be read and played as a batch. 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 In music, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter ( American spelling) refers to regularly recurring patterns and accents such as bars and beats. Unlike rhythm, metric onsets are not necessarily sounded, but are nevertheless implied by the perf ...
, (such as ), 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 note value in the example). The word ''bar'' is more common in
British English British English (BrE, en-GB, or BE) is, according to Oxford Dictionaries, "English as used in Great Britain, as distinct from that used elsewhere". More narrowly, it can refer specifically to the English language in England, or, more broadly ...
, and the word ''measure'' is more common in
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
, although musicians generally understand both usages. The twelve-bar blues, however, is always "twelve-bar blues". 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''. In international usage, it is equally correct to speak of ''bar numbers'' and ''measure numbers'', e.g. "bars 9–16" or "mm. 9–16". Along the same lines, it is usually recommended to reserve the abbreviated form "bb. 3–4" etc. for beats only; bars should be referred to by name in full. The first metrically complete bar within a piece of music is called "bar 1" or "m. 1". When the piece begins with an
anacrusis In poetic and musical meter, and by analogy in publishing, an anacrusis (from , , literally: 'pushing up', plural ''anacruses'') is a brief introduction (distinct from a literary or musical introduction, foreword, or preface). It is a set of s ...
(an incomplete bar at the head of a piece of music), "bar 1" or "m. 1" is the following bar.


Bar

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 Section, Sectioning or Sectioned may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * Section (music), a complete, but not independent, musical idea * Section (typography), a subdivision, especially of a chapter, in books and documents ** Section sig ...
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''. A ''
repeat sign In music, a repeat sign is a sign that indicates a section should be repeated. If the piece has one repeat sign alone, then that means to repeat from the beginning, and then continue on (or stop, if the sign appears at the end of the piece). A ...
'' (or, ''repeat bar line'') 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 August Hugo Distler (24 June 1908 – 1 November 1942)Slonimsky & Kuhn, ''Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians'', v. 2, p. 889 was a German organist, choral conductor, teacher and composer. Life and career Born in Nuremberg, Distler att ...
) 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: Bars and bar lines also indicate grouping:
rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular rec ...
ically of beats within and between bars, within and between
phrases In syntax and grammar, a phrase is a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adjective phrase "very happy". Phrases can consi ...
, 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. Modern editions of early music that was originally notated without barlines sometimes use a
mensurstrich (''plural'' ) is a German term used in musical notation to denote a barline that is drawn between staves, but not across them. It is typically seen in modern editions of Medieval and Renaissance vocal polyphony, where it is intended to allow mo ...
as a compromise.


Hypermeasure

A hypermeasure, large-scale or high-level measure, or measure-group is a
metric unit The metric system is a system of measurement that succeeded the decimalised system based on the metre that had been introduced in France in the 1790s. The historical development of these systems culminated in the definition of the Internati ...
in which, generally, each regular measure is one beat (actually
hyperbeat In music and music theory, the beat is the basic unit of time, the pulse (regularly repeating event), of the ''mensural level'' (or ''beat level''). The beat is often defined as the rhythm listeners would tap their toes to when listening to a pi ...
) 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 In music, metre ( Commonwealth spelling) or meter ( American spelling) refers to regularly recurring patterns and accents such as bars and beats. Unlike rhythm, metric onsets are not necessarily sounded, but are nevertheless implied by the perf ...
. The term was coined by
Edward T. Cone Edward Toner Cone (May 4, 1917 – October 23, 2004) was an American composer, music theorist, pianist, and philanthropist. Life and career Cone was born in Greensboro, North Carolina. He studied composition under Roger Sessions at Prince ...
in ''Musical Form and Musical Performance'' (New York: Norton, 1968),Stein, Deborah (2005). ''Engaging Music: Essays in Music Analysis'', p.18-19 and "Glossary", p.329. New York: Oxford University Press. . and is similar to the less formal notion of a phrase.


See also

*
Bar-line shift In jazz, a bar-line shift is a technique in which, during improvisation, one plays the chord from the measure before or after the given chord either intentionally or as an "accident." Coker, Jerry (1997). ''Elements of the Jazz Language for the ...
* Tala (music) *
Wazn WAZN (1470 AM) is an ethnic radio station in the Boston, Massachusetts market, licensed to Watertown. It is owned by Multicultural Broadcasting, and broadcasts Chinese language programming, simulcast from M.R.B.I.'s New York City station. His ...


References


Further reading

*Cone, Edward T. (1968). ''Musical Form and Musical Performance''. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Bar (Music) Musical notation Rhythm and meter