Meter Metrics

Abstract

“Consideration of a metric context is indispensable for a complete understanding of rhythm” (".fn_cite_pages($toussaint_2013, "16")."). In order to discuss the nature of a rhythm or its compositional development, it is necessary to account for the metrical context(s) in which it appears. In music that moves among a variety of metrical structures, it is also necessary to account for the relationships that exist between those meters. This article provides a detailed characterization of those relationships. What is more, the relationships introduced here may be discussed independently of any rhythmic parallel, illuminating purely metrical aspects of temporal organization, and thus offering an altogether new analytical perspective on repertoires in which metric change is an important compositional parameter. This study identifies a variety of metrical relationships, defines them (mathematically where appropriate), and assesses them for perceptual and musical significance, including the rarity of their occurrence. The focus is on “mixed” metrical structures that systematically use more than one type of duration on the same level, such as both “short” and “long” beats (which may or may not correspond to 2- and 3-unit groupings). “Simple” meters (with only one type of beat) are also discussed for the sake of completeness and because all are used together in the relevant repertoires (which include much twentieth-century Western music, some popular musics, and “world” musics including the Balkan Aksak style). The breadth of this potential application is a principal asset of the theoretical apparatus presented.