(''plural'' ) is a German term used in

musical notation Musical notation is any system used to visually represent music. Systems of notation generally represent the elements of a piece of music that are considered important for its performance in the context of a given musical tradition. The proce ...

to denote a barline that is drawn between staves, but not across them. It is typically seen in modern editions of

Medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

vocal

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice ( monophony) or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chord ...

, where it is intended to allow modern performers the convenience of barlines without having them interfere with the music, which was originally written without barlines. In most cases

note value In music notation, a note value indicates the relative duration (music), duration of a note (music), note, using the texture or shape of the ''notehead'', the presence or absence of a ''stem (music), stem'', and the presence or absence of ''flags ...

s are allowed to cross over a without requiring a tie. The convention of the was introduced by German

musicologist Musicology is the academic, research-based study of music, as opposed to musical composition or performance. Musicology research combines and intersects with many fields, including psychology, sociology, acoustics, neurology, natural sciences, f ...

s such as Heinrich Besseler in the 1920s and became common in editorial practice by the mid-20th century. It is frequently applied in academic editions of 15th and 16th century music such as those in the multi-volume '' Corpus mensurabilis musicae'' published by the American Institute of Musicology. A few modern composers (such as Hugo Distler, whose vocal music is reminiscent of Renaissance vocal polyphony) have made a practice of using it in their music in order to minimize the regularity of

meter The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

References

Musical notation German words and phrases {{Medieval-music-theory-stub