time-signature

DERIVED_FROM: which came first? Tempo as a concept of measured beat speed (e.g. BPM, tempo markings like allegro) predates time-signature as a specific notational convention. Time-signature (e.g. 4/4, 3/4) is a later refinement that builds on the prior concept of tempo plus the need to organize beats into measures. The chronology test passes: the concept of tempo existed first and fed into the development of time-signature notation.

INSTANCE_OF: time-signature IS a specific kind of notation — a system of symbols (numbers and bars) designed to convey information about the organization of beats in music. A competent speaker would call a time-signature 'a type of notation.' The edge pins the sense of notation as a structured symbolic system for conveying information, which matches how time-signature operates.

time-signature is a specific kind of musical notation: it is the notational symbol (typically two numbers) that specifies how many beats are in each measure and which note value constitutes a beat. A competent speaker would call a time signature 'a kind of musical notation'. This files against the nearest kind, musical-notation.

Law 8c part-of test on the defined sense. Pinned sense: the time-signature as inscribed at the head of the score — its accepted definition's own persistence mechanism is 'written notation — time-signatures are inscribed', a notational convention of two stacked numbers drawn on the staff. Sheet-music's accepted definition carves the document as 'marks — staves, notes, clefs, dynamic and articulation marks, and text' following 'the shared syntactic rules of musical notation (staves, clefs, note values, dynamics)'; the time-signature is precisely the mark that fixes the beat structure within those rules. When inscribed, it is literally ink within the artifact — a part of the document, in the same constituent-mark family as the accepted sheet-music CONTAINS staff/note/rest. Asymmetric: remove the sheet and this instance of the time-signature is gone; the convention operates on other sheets.