In chapter 1 we saw Michael Praetorius explaining howthe mensural signs c and ¢ could be manipulated toproduce tempo shifts. As will be amply shownthroughout this chapter, the speed differencesbetween these two meters continued all the way tothe end of the Baroque. Praetorius's body ofteachings on this matter, however, cannot completelyexplain the metric notation of the followinggenerations, because of the significant changes itincurred. The most important of these changes wasthe addition of new numerical meters such as etc.,and the general abandonment of other meters such as,and even (see chapter 3 for a discussion of triplemeter). This feature of the Baroque metric systemprompts a number of questions. How were thesesignatures derived and constructed? Why did theytake on the form that they did? Why did thepreference for some time signatures over othersshift with time? Most importantly, did these newmeters have their own tempo associations? If so,what were they, what were their characteristics?

In addition, throughout the Baroque period, we seefurther variations from Praetorius's teachings withregard to note values. Recall that according toPraetorius, ¢; should be reserved for slower notevalues and c for faster ones. However, Baroquecompositions often paired fast note values with ¢, asign that should only allow slow note values. Seeexample 2.1. What was meant to be communicated withthis particular notation? How do note valuevariations affect tempo when associated with thelater newly-minted numerical time signaturesdiscussed above?

The purpose of the remainder of this study, therefore,is to form a theoretical framework which will allowus to understand how these new signatures werecreated, and what significance they had for tempo.In this chapter in particular, we will turn to duplemeter. In order to decipher the teachings of thelater Baroque treatises, we will first extrapolatefrom Praetorius's principles in this regard, pushingthem to their limits to see what hypotheticaleffects his system could generate. We will then usethese extrapolations to illuminate teachings onduple meter in the later Baroque, and show how theuse of these meters changed over time.