Stirling writes:

>3/3 is just fine as a time signature.  Imagine a siituation where you want
>the triplets to be the dominant rhythm in a hemiola.
>
>As for what a "third" note looks like, its a half note triplet.

Well, actually it's not, as you've just pointed out.  For example, 3
half-note triplets in a measure are not in 3/3 meter, but in 2/2 or 4/4
or 1/1 or 12/8 or ...

Even Elliott Carter's metrical modulations don't resort to an odd
"denominator." Again, the reason is that there's no such symbol as
a third-note, as far as I know.  But it's a small point, since rhythm
is not meter.  After all, if you wanted to, you could write an entire
triple-rhythm piece in 4/4, simply by using triplets.  But why do that
when you can "measure" in 3/4 or 3/2 or some other standard meter?

Steve Schwartz