other arrangement is misleading, as may be seen from old music, in which a note was often placed in the middle of its space. The following (Fig. 9) is an example from an organ work of Rinck's (1770-1846).
Fig. 9
But for the fact that in open score half notes below the middle line have their stems turned down, even an expert would not improbably suppose the time to be four half notes in the bar. This is not the case, the time is two half notes and the whole note is to be sounded simultaneously with the two half notes.
"Confusion worse confounded," is, so far as the eye is concerned, hardly too strong a term to apply to the results of this illogical method when applied to polyphonic music. Compare a and b, Fig. 10, in the former of which four notes intended to be begun simultaneously are no two of them in line, owing to each being in the middle of its space!
Fig. 10.
