A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Bind
BIND (Ger. Bindebogen; Fr. Liaison; Ital. Legatura). A curved line (also called tie) placed between two notes of the same degree, to denote the continuance of the sound during the value of both, instead of the repercussion of the second note. The employment of the bind is a necessity whenever a sound is required to be of a duration which cannot be expressed by any single note, as for example five or seven quavers (Ex. i), and it is also convenient, and in modern music invariably adopted, when the duration of a note extends beyond the limits of the bar (Ex. 2). This is, however, an improvement of comparatively recent date, such passages having been formerly written in the inconvenient form shown in Ex. 3.
It is difficult to ascertain with anything like certainty the precise date of the invention of the bind, but it appears probable that it had its origin in the endeavours which were continually made by the earlier composers (before the 15th century) to give rhythmic variety to their counterpoint. Morley (Practical Music, 1597) describes two kinds of counterpoint, which he calls 'long and short' and 'short and long' in each of which a single note alternates with two notes bound together, the sign of the bind being formed thus , as in Ex. 4; and the fourth of the five orders of counterpoint established by Fux (1725), and adopted by all his successors, consists of syncopation—that is, of a non-accented note bound to the accented note of the next bar (Ex. 5).
[ F. T. ]