Talk:Triple metre

The middle of the article suddenly stops making sense. "Tunes in triple metre tend to be more lyrical and less martial than those in duple meter" – citation needed, and I can think of enough counterexamples that it's not even clear this is a general trend. At the very least a citation is needed. As for triple meter being rare in national anthems – I think we also need a citation for this, as well maybe an exact figure. Listing one or two notable examples won't do it – and I instantly thought of other examples (Austria, Poland), which suggests that these aren't the only notable ones.

Then it gets even stranger. "In Mozart's Requiem triple time is used in the Recordare, Hostias and Agnus Dei as a contrast to the more robust two- and four-in-a-bar of the rest of the work, giving these movements a more reflective feel." Unreferenced, and isn't that just one person's point of view? I find the Benedictus and Tuba mirum quite reflective too. Isn't this more on the speed and dynamics than the meter? And why Mozart's Requiem in particular?

And then the article lists songs by Bach and Schubert in triple meter. This meter is so common in classical music that listing them is getting really weird! These songs don't have anything in common except being in triple meter, and there are so many possible examples that singling out a few is futile! Something that would be slightly more useful is multi-movement works that stay in triple meter for three or more movements in a row (e.g. Haydn 45, Schubert 8)! As it stands it's like a hypothetical list of songs in C major! Double sharp (talk) 15:32, 28 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Cut the material on Bach, Mozart, and Schubert. I singled out Haydn 45 instead, as that is more defensible (all but one of its movements are in triple meter). Schubert 8 is a more controversial example of that and so I didn't put it in (the scherzo is incomplete and isn't usually performed).
 * Also cut a sentence that was more about the sarabande in particular than triple time. I think the point should be that most dances were in triple meter, and many composers wrote dance music, so most classical dances are in triple time. And it should be stated more generally. Double sharp (talk) 15:38, 28 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Even more incomprehensible to me! "SWV's R&B hit "Weak" mentions the lyrics "cause my heart starts beating triple time" but the song is in 4/4 time." If the song is in triple time, or even if it moves into triple time for these lyrics alone, I could understand this mention – it'd basically be a case of word-painting. But it isn't! And what does "my heart starts beating triple time" even mean? Three times faster? I don't find it plausible that it means triple time – according to this picture from The Lancet the usual heartbeat rhythm is something like    , already in triple time. I could be wrong, so I haven't removed this. Double sharp (talk) 15:43, 28 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Hang on just a second, Double sharp! The human heartbeat (pace the Lancent) is in a pattern that more closely approximates quintuple time:   , as anyone can hear (provided that they can count past four).—Jerome Kohl (talk) 07:34, 23 June 2019 (UTC)
 * OK, fair enough. I suppose we still need a source explicitly stating the relevance of this, given the multiple possible interpretations. Double sharp (talk) 07:54, 23 June 2019 (UTC)
 * Yup!—Jerome Kohl (talk) 07:59, 23 June 2019 (UTC)

Possible incorrect use of the phrase “Ternary rhythm”
I noticed that in the intro “ternary rhythm” is used as a synonym for triple meter. AFAIK this is incorrect. “Triple time” or “triple meter” refer to 3 beats per BAR, whereas “ternary” refers to 3 counts per BEAT. “Binary” and “ternary” are synonyms for “simple” and “compound” meter. For example, 3/4 is “triple meter” but is also “simple” or “binary,” whereas 6/8 is also “triple meter” but is “compound” or “ternary.”

A quick Google search revealed that this is the only page that use “ternary” as a synonym for “triple time,” whereas every other page I found used the term “ternary” in the way I described (as a synonym for “compound”). As such I have removed “ternary rhythm” as a synonym for “triple time” on this page. Nick Vuci (talk) 14:37, 14 June 2021 (UTC)