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Most time signatures consist of two numerals, one stacked above the other: The lower numeral indicates the note value that the signature is counting. This number is always a power of 2 (unless the time signature is irrational), usually 2, 4 or 8, but less often 16 is also used, usually in Baroque music. 2 corresponds to the half note (minim), 4 to the quarter note (crotchet), 8 to the eighth ...
Since it is equal to four quarter notes, it occupies the entire length of a measure in 4 4 time. Other notes are multiples or fractions of the whole note. For example, a double whole note (or breve) lasts twice the duration of the whole note, a half note lasts one half the duration, and a quarter note (or crotchet) lasts one quarter the duration.
Ultimately, musicians count using numbers, “ands” and vowel sounds. Downbeats within a measure are called 1, 2, 3… Upbeats are represented with a plus sign and are called “and” (i.e. 1 + 2 +), and further subdivisions receive the sounds “ee” and “uh” (i.e. 1 e + a 2 e + a).
2: two half-note (minim) beats per measure. Notated and executed like common time (4 4), except with the beat lengths doubled. Indicated by . This comes from a literal cut of the symbol of common time. Thus, a quarter note in cut time is only half a beat long, and a measure has only
The linked word goes to an explanation: "a segment of time defined by a given number of beats, each of which are assigned a particular note value". This only "goes back to the first part of the article's sentence" in the sense that it says a time signature "specif[ies] how many" beats there are and "which note value constitutes one beat".
8 time. 1 whole note = 8 eighth notes = 3 + 3 + 2. The term additive rhythm is also often used to refer to what are also incorrectly called asymmetric rhythms and even irregular rhythms [citation needed] – that is, meters which have a regular pattern of beats of uneven length.
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A longa in white-mensural notation. A longa rest (modern form) worth two breves. A longa (pl. longae, or sometimes longe), long, quadruple note (Am.), or quadruple whole note is a musical note that could be either twice or three times as long as a breve (Am.: double whole note, or double note), four or six times as long as a semibreve (Am.: whole note), that appears in early music.