Each verse of the couplet is sung twice in a different rhythm:
˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ | ˘ ˘ ¯ | ¯ ¨ |
˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ | ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ |
¯ ¯ | ¯ ¯ | ˘ ˘ ˘ ˘ |
¯ ¯ | ¯ ¯ | ˘ ˘ ¯ | ¯ ¨ ||
The couplet therefore lasts 3 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 12 bars or 24 periods or 48 mora.
When time is measured, it is sung at the rate of 120 periods per minute = 2 periods per second = 1 beat per second, so that a stanza of five couplets takes one minute, a song of five stanzas five minutes, and a cycle of twelve songs one hour.
When measuring a traveled distance, the tempo is sung at 100 times per minute, so that a song of five stanzas takes six minutes and a cycle of ten songs one hour. One mora corresponds to a "palm-foot" (palmipes, 75 mm + 300 mm), a period to a single step (gradus, ¾ m), a measure to a double step (crotchet, pasus, 1½ m), a couplet to a chain of sixty feet (18 m), a stanza to a half-stanza (180 m / 2 = 90 m), a six-minute song for the naval quarter-mile (1.8 km / 4 = 450 m), an hour-long cycle of ten songs for the military league (3 × 1.5 km = 4.5 km), a cycle of twelve songs for the naval league (3 × 1.8 km = 5.4 km).
c f g e | d e d: | c: |
c f g e | d e f e |
f: g: | e: c: | d e f e |
f: g: | e: c: | d e d: | c: ||
L \ r, L \ l, /R / l, / R / r.
L = /4 / \3 (male left hand)
R = / \3 \3 (female right hand)
l = / / \ (child left hand)
r = / \ \ (child right hand)