tactusn.
/ˈtaktəs/ Music.
= tact n. 4.
ΘΚΠ
society > leisure > the arts > music > musical sound > duration of notes > proportion of notes or rhythm > [noun] > keeping time > beating time > stroke in beating time
stroke1576
tact1609
tactus1740
beat1911
1740 J. Grassineau tr. S. De Brossard Musical Dict. 130 Metron, Tactus, Mensura, Battuta,—the beating or measuring the time by a motion of the hand or foot.
1786 T. Busby Compl. Dict. Music at Tactus When the time consisted of a breve in a bar, the time-stroke was called Tactus-Major; and when of a semibreve in a bar, Tactus-Minor.
1959 Collins Mus. Encycl. 644/1 A term used for ‘beat’ by the theorists of the 15th and 16th cent... The semibreve was the normal tactus in the 15th cent.; in the course of the 16th cent. the minim became the normal... With the introduction of bar-lines the semibreve became the unit of a bar and the measuring tactus was replaced by the metrical beat.
1980 Early Music 8 310/2 To sing the passage to a tactus, however, is to miss its raisson d'être and obliterate the most vital element of the madrigal's expressive scheme.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1986; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
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n.1740- to gather up the threads
- to gather way
- to gather wool
- to gauge a ship
- to gauge up
- to gavel down
- to gavel through
- to gawp up
- to gear down
- to gear level
- to gear up
- to geck at
- to geck up the head
- to geg in
- to gem it
- to gentilize it
- to gersume in
- to get a bad name
- to get a beat on
- to get a big hand
- to get a blow
- to get a bug in one's ear
- to get a catch
- to get a charge out of
- to get a downer on