Alla breve
The name "common time" refers to 44, which has four beats to the bar, each of a quarter note (or crotchet).
[4] Using alla breve helps the musician read notes of short duration more cleanly with fewer beats.
Prior to 1600 the term alla breve derives from the system of mensural or proportional notation (also called proportio dupla) in which note values (and their graphical shapes) were related by the ratio 2:1.
The most obvious is that music in triple time was called tempus perfectum, deriving its name from the Holy Trinity and represented by the "perfect" circle, which has no beginning or end.
[5] The use of the vertical line or stroke in a musical graphical symbol, as practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, and now referred to by the modern term of "cut time", did not always have the same meaning as alla breve.
2 followed by the same rhythm notated in 4
4 . Note there are more eighth and sixteenth notes in the 4
4 version versus eighth and quarter notes in the 2
2 version, one of the reasons 2
2 is typically easier to read at faster tempos. [ 7 ]
