interpretation / Symbolic
Time signature
The meter: how beats group into a bar, written as a ratio (4/4, 6/8, 7/8). The top number counts notated units per bar, the bottom names the unit (4 = quarter, 8 = eighth). Simple meters feel one beat per numerator unit; compound meters (6/8, 9/8, 12/8) group their eighths in threes into dotted-quarter beats. Off-axis: a meter is not a structural object but the interpretive frame that tells a rhythm where the bar lines and downbeats fall.
How it works
This object can carry concrete values or a musical interpretation, depending on its notation.
A key or tonal context supplies meaning that the underlying pitch structure does not carry by itself.
Written forms
Ways to write this concept
Each notation describes the same underlying object. Load a playable example to hear one MIDI realization in the Code Sequencer.
ratio
Meter as a numerator/denominator ratio
4/46/87/8