BEATING Time, in Music, a method of measuring and marking the time for performers in concert, by a motion of the hand and foot up or down successively and in equal times. Knowing the true time of a crotchet, and supposing the measure actually subdivided into four crotchets, and the half-measure into two, the hand or foot being up, if we put it down with the very beginning of the first note or crotchet, and then raise it with the third, and then down with the beginning of the next measure, this is called beating the time; and by practice a habit is acquired of making this motion very equal. Each down and up is sometimes called a time or measure. Beating time is denoted, in the Italian music, by the term a battuta, which is usually put after what they call recitativo, where little or no time is observed, to denote that here they are to begin again to mark or beat the time exactly. The Romans aimed at somewhat of harmony in the strokes of their oars, and had an officer called portisculus in each galley, whose business it was to beat time to the rowers, sometimes by a pole or mallet, and sometimes by his voice alone. The ancients marked the rhythm in their musical compositions; but to make it more observable in practice, they beat the measure or time, and this in different manners. The most usual method consisted in a motion of the foot, which was raised from and struck alternately against the ground, according to the modern method. This was commonly the province of the master of the music, called μυσχος and πυρρανος, because placed in the middle of the choir of musicians, and in an elevated situation, in order to be more easily seen and heard by the whole company. These beaters of measure were also called by the Greeks πυρρανοι, because of the noise of their feet; the Latins denominated them pedarii, podarii, and pedicularii. To make the beats or strokes more audible, their feet were generally shod with a sort of sandals made of wood or iron, called by the Greeks πυρραία, πυρραία, πυρραία, and by the Latins pedicula, scabella, or scabilla, because resembling little stools or footstools. The ancients also beat time or measure with shells, as oyster shells and bones of animals, which they struck against one another, much as the moderns now use castanets and similar instruments. Other noisy instruments, as drums, cymbals, and citherns, were also used on the same occasion.