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Rhythm: Music is propelled forward by rhythm and it organizes movement in time. Refers to the length or duration of individual notes. Beat: the basic unit we use to measure time. (The regular pulsation heard in most Western styles of music.) Accents: Some beats are stronger than others; these are known as accented or strong beats. In much music, the beats occur at regular intervals -- every other beat, every third beat, every fourth, etc. So we perceive all the beats in groups of two, three, four, or more. These patterns are called meters and are marked off in measures. Each measure contains a fixed number of beats. The first beat of each measure generally receives the strongest beat. Rhythm encompasses the overall movement of music in time. Meter is the actual measurement of time. It refers to the number of beats in a measure, the placement of accents within the measure and the way each beat in a measure is divided into smaller parts. Literary parallel: Poetry Metrical Patterns: Much of Western music is based on simple recurring patterns of two, three, or four beats grouped together in a measure. These patterns depend on the regular recurrence of an accent. Duple meter: strong beat alternates with a weak beat. ONE-two, ONE-two. Triple meter: 3 beats to a measure – one strong and two weak. (Waltz and minuet.) Quadruple meter: (Common time) contains four beats to the measure, with a primary accent on the first beat and a secondary accent on the third. (Sometimes difficult to tell duple and quadruple apart. Quadruple usually has a broader feeling.) Simple meters and Compound meters: When duple, triple and quadruple meters subdivide the beat into two or four, they are called simple meters. Meters in which each beat is divided into three are known as compound meters. Sextuple meter, for example, with six beats to the measure, is usually heard as a duple-compound meter, in which the principal accents fall on one and four. ONE-two-three, FOUR-five-six. (Lullabies) Upbeat: In some case, a piece does not begin with an accented beat. America the Beautiful begins on beat 4. Syncopation: a deliberate upsetting of the normal pattern of accentuation. Keeps music from becoming monotonous. Instead of falling on the strong beat of the measure, the accent is shifted to a weak beat or to an offbeat (in between the beats). Common in jazz. Polyrhythm: A technique for throwing off the regular patterns. A composition may change meters during its course. Some twentieth-century music shifts meter nearly every measure. Another technique is the simultaneous use of rhythmic patterns that conflict with the underlying beat. Two against three, for example. Nonmetric: Typical of early Western music (plainchant, etc). The pulse is veiled or weak, with the music moving in a floating rhythm. Suggested listening: Nonmetric: Ex more docti mystico plainsong, Hymnal 1982 # 146 Duple meter: Franz Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 94 in G major, second movement
Sir Colin Davis, Conductor. Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra.
Triple meter: Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, third movement
Karl Böhm, Conductor. Vienna Philharmonic
Orchestra
and Johannes Brahms: Ein deutsches Requiem (A German Requiem) Deutsche Grammophon - #3165. Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert von Karajan, conductor. Quadruple meter: Mozart: Eine kleine Nachtmusik, first movement Changing meter: Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
Veiled pulse: Claude Debussy: Prelude to "The Afternoon of a Faun"
Syncopation: Scott Joplin: Maple Leaf Rag
Polyrhythm: Debussy: Arabesque #1 for piano
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