The Unknown Container Page raised several interesting comments concerning the placement of Bar-lines and of the Bars which resulted from the placement which we suggested. We find that there existed (and still exists) prejudice concerning incomplete bars at the beginning of a piece, especially if the first incomplete bar consists of a half-bar or more. Yet this phenomenon is inevitable if the bars are at a sufficiently large level. We therefore thought that it might be a good idea to give examples of what these large bars would look like in a score. NOTE that, as the levels get larger, the note-values used to represent the notes will be smaller, so as to allow better beam grouping for easier reading. Also NOTE that the tempo of the music could be exactly the same for each example of a given piece of music.

Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star

Bars at Level -1

We have here 8 bars of 2/2 with the first notes represented as s.
     Each bar is complete, with beats counted 1-2 / 1-2 throughout.

Bars at Level 0

We have here 4 bars of 4/4 with the first notes represented as s.
     The first and last bars are incomplete, each 1/2 of a bar, producing 4 cells,
          with beats counted 3-4 / 1-2 throughout.

There have been countless reproductions of Twinkle, Twinkle in a variety of collections.
Some of them are written at Level -1 with small bars of 2 notes, counted 1-2.
Some of them are written at Level 0 with larger bars of 4 notes,
BUT all of these are counted 1-2-3-4 (within bar-lines)
and NOT 3-4 / 1-2 as they should.
The tendency to start at the beginning of a bar is very powerful indeed.

Bars at Level +1

We have here 2 bars of 4/4 with the first notes represented as s.
     The first and last bars are incomplete, the first 3/4 of a bar, the last 1/4 of a bar, producing 2 cells,
          with beats counted 2-3-4 / 1, 2-3-4 / 1 .

These are the kind of bars we suggested for the Chopin Nocturne
in which there were s everywhere.

Bars at Level +2

We have here 1 bar of 4/4 with the first notes represented as s.
     The first and last bars are the same bar, 7/8 of a bar and 1/8 of a bar, producing 1 cell,
          with beats counted +2+3+4+ / 1 .

Happy Birthday

Bars at Level -2-1

We have here 8 bars of 3/4 with the first notes represented as s.
     There is a pick-up at the beginning (1/3 of a bar) and a at the end (2/3 of a bar),
          with beats counted 3 / 1-2 throughout.

This is how the piece is normally written.

Bars at Level 0

We have here 4 bars of 6/8 with the first notes represented as s.
     The first and last bars are incomplete, the first being 2/3 of a bar, the last 1/3 of a bar, producing 4 cells,
          with beats counted 2 / 1 throughout.

Bars of 3/4 at Level -2-1 correspond to bars of 6/8 at Level 0.
The second and third complete bars of 3/4
correspond to the first complete bar of 6/8.

Bars at Level +1

We have here 2 bars of 12/16 with the first notes represented as s.
     The first and last bars are incomplete, the first being 5/6 of a bar, the last 1/6 of a bar, producing 2 cells,
          with beats counted 2-3-4 / 1, 2-3-4 / 1 .

Bach Fugue

Bars at Level -2

We have here 6 bars of 2/2 with the first notes represented as s.
     Each bar is complete, with beats counted 1-2 / 1-2 throughout.

These bars are only 1/2 the size of the bars in the original Bach fugue.

Bars at Level -1 0

We have here 2 bars of 3/4 with the first notes represented as s.
     The first and last bars are incomplete, the first with 2/3 of a bar, the second with 1/3 of a bar, producing 2 cells,
          with beats counted 2-3 / 1 throughout.

These bars in 3/4 are much easier to read
than the bars in 3/2 we used originally.