If signature does not denote tempo, why do we need signatures like 2/4 or 6/8? Why can’t the music just be written in 4/4 or 3/4?
In: 30
So summarize others’ ideas.
There are twomain reasons.
1) When writing sheet music, there will be ways to write it to make it easier or harder to read for musicians. And sometimes the way you write the music might subconsciously affect how the musician plays it. (This isn’t a huge reason, and it’s related to No. 2, but it’s there.)
2) The most important reason, simpler or more complex time signatures allows a composer to rely more or less on primary and secondary beats of emphasis.
Say the word “Summertime.” The first syallable is stressed the most, the “um” is unstressed, but the “time” has a little bit more stress than the “um” but less than the “sum”.
Compare that with “violet”. “Vi” is stressed, but “ol-let” are more or less the same.
Similarly, in music, the first beat of a measure is stressed. If it’s just 2/4 or 3/4, then you have the first beat stressed, and the second (or second and third) equally unstressed. Listen to the [Stars and Stripes Forever](https://youtu.be/a-7XWhyvIpE?t=57) march, or a Strauss waltz. Or something like ‘[Ice Cream](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8K0qCCfeMAE)” by Sarah McLaughlin.
But when you get into 4/4, or 6/4 (or more commonly, 6/8), you get a measure with a primary stress on 1, and a secondary stress on 3 (or, in 6/8, a primary stress on 1, and a secondary stress on 4). Compare “Ice Cream” with “[Gravity](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VBex8zbDRs)” by John Mayer. It feels different, right? In fact, what John Mayer is doing is hitting the back beat in 6/8–emphasizing the less stressed big beats in a measure is something that started with blues and is a staple of rock music. But you can hear that bass drum hits on 1, and the snare drum hits hard on 4. That’s different from just a 1-2-3- measure. Now listen to Ice Cream. Where’s the snare drum there? It’s on beat 3–that’s the accented off-beat. Now, *could* “Gravity” be written in 3/4, with some weird accents written in to indicate that beat 1 of the second measure should feel different from beat 1 of the first measure? Sure. But the inclusion of the barline would send the wrong signal to a musician.
Similary, compare Stars & Stripes with something like “[We’re not gonna take it](https://youtu.be/V9AbeALNVkk?t=166)” Stars and stripes is definitely in 2. There’s and equal, strong emphasis on every second beat. Twisted Sister’s song has a strong 1 (quiet 2) 3 (but not as strong as 1), (really quiet 4). “Gon'” is not as strong as “We’re” but it’s stronger than “not” or “take”.
(Of course, there are also compound time signatures, like 5/4, or 7/8, but they too play around with primary and secondary emphasis. But that’s a different question.)
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