Measure numbers and time signatures are the tools embedded in the western classical notation tradition that provides this. I don't think you are arguing that meter doesn't exist, but as long as it does, notation needs some way of communicating that to the reader. There are an infinite number of ways to notate a piece of music, but only a small subset of those ways will help the reader not want to gouge their eyes out. Notation must always be in service of the music, and to the reader. There's an important distinction between meter, which is a musical concept, and time signatures and measures, which are notation concepts.

The only purpose of measures I can think of is if a conductor wants to say: 'All right, let's take it from measure 42!' I cannot for the life of me figure out what purpose these time signature changes serve (and neither can my piano teacher). 12, measure 13 changes to 6/8 time for one measure, and then back to 12/8 for the rest of the piece (I'd post pictures, but the website won't let me). 5, measure 16 changes to 2/4 time for one measure, and then back to common time. How would it have felt different if it had been written in common time instead of cut?Īnd then you get Rachmaninoff, who will do weird things like changing the time signature for one measure only. What's the difference? You still have four quarter notes per measure. Turns out it's not common time (4/4) but actually cut time (2/2). I'm currently learning Beethoven's Eighth Piano Sonata, and till recently I misread it and thought it was in common time. Yet the grand piano solo at the beginning is shoved into one measure, regardless of the time signature, and nothing bad seems to happen. The first movement of Beethoven's Fifth Piano Concerto is common time. Yet I can find many examples in music where a different beat gets the accent, and also other theories of music that disagree on which beat should be accented. People will insist that certain beats will be stronger with certain time signatures. The time signature is supposed to determine the 'feel.' But I need hardly say that two different pieces with the same time signature can have very different 'feels.' A lot of Shostakovitch 'feels' unmetered (or maybe I have no ear for music). And then the person giving the explanation will show a piece of music as an example of a type of some meter (usually a piece of music that doesn't have readily accessible sheet music) but then someone will argue that it's actually so-and-so a meter, and then a big internet argument ensues. Everywhere I look, every resource I read, says that time signatures determine the 'feel' and meter of the music.

Audiosauna set time signature