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Cut time — the half note gets the beat instead of the quarter note. Equivalent to 2/2 time. Marked with the symbol ¢.
Usually shown by the time-signature sign ¢ (a C with a vertical stroke) and counted in two half-note beats; the words “Alla breve” appear when a passage switches meter mid-movement, or to confirm the beat. Over long-note counterpoint in the old church style the words head a whole movement. Either way it holds until the next time signature.
Alla breve makes music feel faster and lighter by grouping beats in twos rather than fours. Music that looks complex in 4/4 often looks and feels simpler in 2/2. Use it for fast movements where four-beat conducting would be too slow, or for music with a strong two-beat feel.
Beethoven, Symphony No. 3 (“Eroica”), third movement (Scherzo), flute, m. 392: “Alla breve” turns the 3/4 scherzo into duple time at ff.
Alla breve is one of 1760 terms in the Gradus musical dictionary: the words, abbreviations and instrument names that appear in printed scores, plus the vocabulary composers use to talk about them.
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