IMPERFECT (Lat. Imperfectus, Ital. Imperfetto). A term employed, in Music, in relation to Time, to Melody, to Cadence, and to Interval.
Time. Mediæval writers (accustomed to look upon the number Three—the Symbol of the Blessed Trinity—as the sign of Perfection) applied the term, Imperfect, to all rhythmic proportions subject to the binary division.
The notes of Measured Music were called Imperfect, when divisible into two equal portions. Thus, the Minim—always equal to two Crotchets only—was essentially...