Chapter Seven Outline: “Rhythm and Meter”

 

Rhythm: the organization of music through time

            Refers in both a general way to time in music and to specific patterns of notes and rests

            These patterns depend on a collaboration of beat, meter, and tempo

 

Component of Rhythm

            Beat: a regular pulse that is felt even when not heard

            Meter: the way in which beats are combined into larger patterns

            Accent: notes that stand out from the rest, usually played slightly louder so that they sound “strong”

            Tempo: the speed at which music moves, a framework for rhythm, meter, and accent

 

Exploring Meter

            Rhythm can have physical, emotional, and intellectual effects

 

Common Musical Meters

            Indicated by time signatures

            Duple meters: 2/2, 2/4, 4/4

            Triple meter: 3/4

            Compound duple: 6/8, 6/4

            Compound triple: 9/8, 9/4

            Compound quadruple: 12/8

            Irregular: 5/8, 5/4, 7/8, etc.

 

Duple Meter: Sousa and Count Basie

            Marches have regular, emphasized beats that help people step in time

            Duple meter is the most common meter for both classical and popular music

            Some type of jazz, such as Lester Leaps In, are designed to be danced to, and therefore have regular beats

                        However, the accents do not fall on the first and third beats, but on 2 and 4—known as a backbeat

                        Normally beat 1, known as the downbeat, is the strongest

 

Triple Meter: Dvořák 's Slavonic Dance in E Minor

            Also evokes dancing by use of a folk dance in triple meter

            This triple meter has a strong accent on beat one and a light one on beat three, but Dvořák works both with and against the meter

 

Focus on Antonín Dvořák

            Like other Romantic composers as Chopin and Schubert, Dvořák drew on folk dances of his native country when writing

 

Listening Closely for Meter

            The melody begins not at the beginning of the first beat, but on the second half of the first beat: an upbeat. This confuses the regular beat pattern.

            Changing the length of phrases also contributes to a feeling of instability in the rhythm; this variety adds interest to the work

 

How Dvořák Shifts the Rhythm

            Rhythmic patterns are not set in stone, and Dvořák reverses the pattern from long–short to short–long; the use of dotted rhythms intensifies this change

 

Syncopation: Where’s the Beat?

            Meter in poetry and music are not always analogous; especially in genres such as jazz, rhythmic accents often do not correspond to the underlying meter

                        Notes do not have to occur directly on the beat

 

Swing: Lester Leaps In

            Syncopation gives this piece its characteristic “swing”; however, syncopation itself requires a strong beat pattern

 

Syncopation in Classical Music: Bach’s Harpsichord Concerto

            Syncopation in classical music seems less spontaneous than in jazz, but it provides interest and variety to the rhythmic structure

 

Focus on Joseph Haydn

            Worked closely with the aristocratic Esterházy family most of his adult life, which had the advantages of a steady income and the presence of dedicated musicians, but required him to write music that suited the taste of his patrons

 

Haydn: the Beat

            Haydn’s music often sounds simple, but that disguises the extent to which he plays with our perception of the beat

 

In History: Haydn’s String Quartet, op. 64 no. 3

            Written in the high Classical style shortly before Haydn moved to Vienna

                        One of the most creative and fulfilled parts of Haydn’s life

 

Compound Meters in the Middle Ages: Machaut

            Meters can be grouped together on different levels throughout Lasse! Comment oublieray…

            Four-note groups of duple meter are joined in groups of three; these triple groups are themselves paired in a large-scale duple meter

                        Difficult to feel, but can be heard as an intellectual experience

            Much later music also has multiple rhythmic layers, with the larger ones called hypermeter

 

Across the Arts: The Medieval Worldview

            The medieval universe was thought to be built in interlocking layers that operated according to musical proportions; interlocking rhythms reflected that conception of the universe

 

Compound Meter in Romantic Music: A Chopin Ballade

            Written in a slow 6/4 with two groups of three beats in every measure

                        Chopin displaces this rhythm by as much as half a measure, and the presence of rubato further complicates the perception of this rhythm

 

Disguising the Meter: Debussy

            Debussy changes meter repeatedly in the Sonata for Flute, Viola, and Harp and uses very complicated, irregular rhythmic patterns to disguise the beat further

            Indications for speeding up and slowing down the tempo abound

            Metrical changes are used as a structural indicator in the 2nd movement

            The 1st movement switches between unusual and irregular meters such that listeners get the impression that the music has no meter

 

The Twentieth Century: Rhythmic Freedom

            Rapidly changing time signatures or eliminating time signatures altogether became common in the twentieth century

             Ives uses both strategies in his Sonata no. 4

 

Focus on Charles Ives

            His music integrates European and American musical traditions in combination with innovations in rhythm, harmony, and form

 

Irregular Compound Meters; Vandervelde’s Genesis II

            Uses 5/8 for an extended section

 

Polymeters: Global Music

            Some musical traditions, such as those of many African and Middle Eastern cultures, include the simultaneous occurrence of multiple meters: polymeters

 

Most music depends on regular metrical patterns, even when they are disguised, disrupted, or changed