Quintuple meter

The most common time signatures for simple quintuple meter are 4 and 8; compound quintuple meter is most often written in 8. Simple quintuple meter can be written in 4 or 8 time, but may also be notated by using regularly alternating bars of triple and duple meters, for example 4 + 4. Compound quintuple meter, with each of its five beats divided into three parts, can similarly be notated using a time signature of 8, by writing triplets on each beat of a simple quintuple signature, or by regularly alternating meters such as 8 + 8. Another notational variant involves compound meters, in which two or three numerals take the place of the expected numerator. In simple quintuple meter, the 5 may be replaced as 8 or 8 for example. A time signature of 8, however, does not necessarily mean the music is in a compound quintuple meter. It may, for example, indicate a bar of triple meter in which each beat is subdivided into five parts. In this case, the meter is sometimes characterized as "triple quintuple time".