Nine-eight time
Nine eighths per bar in three groups of three.
What it means
Nine-eight time contains nine eighth notes per bar, organized in three groups of three. The actual beat is therefore not the eighth note but the dotted quarter: the bar has three beats, each of which divides into three parts. It thus belongs to the compound time signatures, whose beat is divided into three.
It is to be distinguished from three-four time, which likewise has three beats but organizes them into two parts each. Within the compound time signatures, nine-eight is the three-beat counterpart to the two-beat six-eight and to the four-beat twelve-eight.
In the notation
The time signature 9/8 stands at the beginning of the line. The beaming groups the eighths into three groups of three and thereby makes the organization visible; a deviating beaming is a sign of a different intended division. A full bar is filled by three dotted quarters or their combinations, and a whole rest stands, as usual, for the entire bar.
Musical use
The metre is found in dance-like and pastoral movements, in gigues, and in pieces of a rocking, flowing character. In Baroque music it is widespread as the metre of fast closing movements, in church music in movements with a calmly flowing motion. Because every beat is threefold, an evenly round, not sharply accented movement image results.
Nine-eight time is a compound metre made of three groups of three. It is found in Baroque music, gigues, and in Debussy. The three main beats fall on eighths one, four, and seven, each group being divided into three eighths. It is usually conducted in three beats.
Performance practice
Count in three beats, not in nine — the eighths are a subdivision, not the beat. Keep the three notes of each group even; an imbalance turns the triplet into a dotted rhythm. Accent the first beat clearly, the second and third more lightly. At a slow tempo you may count in eighths, but you should keep the threefold organization in your ear, so that the flow is preserved.