Triple metre

“Triple” comes from the Latin “triplus”, “threefold”. A triple metre has three beats. The first is strong, the second and third are weak. The order of threes sets it apart from duple metre (2/4, 4/4), whose beats group in pairs. The commonest example is the 3/4 time of the waltz.

Which time signatures belong to it?

All three time signatures have the same order, only the length of the basic beat differs. 3/4 is common. 3/8 is found in fast, light movements, 3/2 above all in older music. In all three cases each beat divides into two equal parts, so the bar is a simple one.

Triple metre or compound metre?

The names are similar, the time signatures are not. A triple metre has three beats that each divide into two parts. With 6/8 and 9/8, by contrast, each beat divides into three parts; these are called compound metres. A 6/8 bar has six eighth notes but only two leading beats, and therefore does not feel like triple time. A 9/8 bar, by contrast, has three beats of three eighth notes each; it is a compound triple metre.

Triple metre in the sheet music archive

The minuet below is a dance in 3/4. The stress on the one shapes the melody here too: it begins on a quarter note, the eighth notes follow as a light run.

• Menuett G-Dur Christian Petzold, from the Notebook for Anna Magdalena Bach, BWV Anh. 114 · 1 page

  On the first page the time signature is 3/4, with one sharp in the key signature. The first bar of the right hand has a quarter note and four eighth notes, the one lies on the quarter note. The addition “Anh.” in the number stands for the appendix of the Bach works catalogue; the composer named on the sheet is Christian Petzold.