The time signature, found at the very beginning of a piece after the clef and the key signature, is made up of two numbers. The top number tells us the number of beats in each bar, the lower number the note value we are counting. Thus 2/4 tells us two crotchets (quarter notes) in each bar. Textbooks tell us to play the first beat of each bar stronger than the second (a weak beat), but as we shall see accentuation changes depending on the context. In the opening of Bach’s Italian Concerto, the chunky LH
