Ritmo di quattro battute

As Printed on a Score

Printed above the staff, across all parts in a score, at the bar where the music returns to four-bar grouping, usually cancelling an earlier Ritmo di tre battute. Like it, it changes neither tempo nor metre; players feel each bar as one beat of a four-beat larger unit.

Also spelled: ritmo di 4 battute

How Composers Use It

Its main use is as a cancellation: having asked players to count in three-bar units, you restore the normal four-bar pulse explicitly. It is rarely needed at the start of a piece, since four-bar grouping is the default expectation; print it only where a change of hypermetre needs to be made audible.

Example

Beethoven, Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, second movement, flute part: “Ritmo di quattro battute” restores four-bar grouping after the earlier “Ritmo di tre battute”, at pp.

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