What time signature uses a C and a backwards C?
This just confuses me help would be appreciated
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Looks like some strange double time signature from mensural notation.
Mensural notation was used from 13th century to circa 1600.
More info: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mensural_notation
I found this: lilypond.org/doc/v2.19/Documentation/notation/typesetting-mensural-music
There's a picture showing mensural time signatures:
Based on this:
C = 4/4 (what a surprise)
mirrored C = 4/8
The strange is that in mensural notation the cleffs, rests...etc would be drawn differently.
By the way it wouldn't be unique to see double time signature in music notation.
Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 2 in F major:
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_signature
Lilypond Manual has the mirrored C as mensural 4/8. So according to the example by @atanii this could mean to switch between 4/4 and 4/8 on a bar by bar basis. (If the strange combination is supposed to mean 4/4 plus 4/8, i. e. 12/8 instead should be recognizable from a full bar of notes.)
With no knowledge of what this actually means, let me suggest a fun idea to play this:
Play the piece in common time, then backwards in common time.
That would be a really funny way to write a piece, and I've heard it done to great effect, but as far as I know no one uses that symbol for that.
Still, I'd presume that this is somehow related to the common time time signature, which is a fancy way (or lazy way) of writing 4/4. Cut time, on the other hand, looks just like the common time sign (letter c for common), but has a vertical line through its center, as though it's been cut. Cut time refers to 2/2.
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