Battuta

What it means

Battuta means in Italian “beat” and denotes the downbeat, in an extended meaning also the bar itself. The word stems from the time when the beat was still executed literally audibly, and has persisted in several fixed phrases.

The most important is a battuta: it calls for playing strictly in time again, and stands typically after a freely shaped section, a recitative or a cadenza. In this function it corresponds to tempo giusto. The phrase ritmo a battuta stresses the same: the rhythm follows the beat.

Besides this, battuta occurs as a counting unit in indications referring to bars, for instance when a rhythm is to be felt as one unit across several bars. Such indications are rare and are handled differently in the editions.

In the notation

The word stands in italics above the staff at the point from which it holds. With a battuta a free section thereby ends; the pace is binding again from the following note. In older editions the indication also appears in prefaces and playing instructions.

Musical use

The indication is used above all in Italian music and there where free and bound sections alternate: in opera between recitative and aria, in instrumental works after cadenzas and fermatas. It marks the return of order and is thus an articulation sign as much as a tempo instruction.

The indication often stands after recitatives or cadenzas. It restores the firm pulse.

Performance practice

Take up the beat at once and fully, not gradually — the indication means a change, not a transition. Settle the tempo inwardly before the free section ends, so that you have a point of reference. Forgo stretchings afterward and shape through dynamics and articulation. In an ensemble the entry after a free section is the critical spot; rehearse it separately, instead of relying on the ear.