.svg)
In music,metre (British spelling) ormeter (American spelling) refers to regularly recurring patterns and accents such asbars andbeats. Unlikerhythm, metric onsets are not necessarily sounded, but are nevertheless implied by the performer (or performers) and expected by the listener.[not verified in body]
A variety of systems exist throughout the world for organising and playing metrical music, such as theIndian system oftala and similar systems inArabic andAfrican music.
Western music inherited the concept of metre frompoetry,[1][2] where it denotes the number of lines in averse, the number of syllables in each line, and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented.[1][2] The first coherent system ofrhythmic notation in modern Western music was based onrhythmic modes derived from thebasic types ofmetrical unit in thequantitative metre ofclassicalancient Greek andLatin poetry.[3]
Later music fordances such as thepavane andgalliard consisted ofmusical phrases to accompany afixed sequence ofbasic steps with a defined tempo andtime signature. The English word "measure", originally an exact or just amount of time, came to denote either a poetic rhythm, a bar of music, or else an entire melodic verse or dance[4] involving sequences of notes, words, or movements that may last four, eight or sixteen bars.[citation needed]
Metre is related to and distinguished frompulse,rhythm (grouping), and beats:
Meter is the measurement of the number of pulses between more or less regularly recurring accents. Therefore, in order for meter to exist, some of the pulses in a series must be accented—marked for consciousness—relative to others. When pulses are thus counted within a metric context, they are referred to asbeats.[5]
The termmetre is not very precisely defined.[1]Stewart MacPherson preferred to speak of "time" and "rhythmic shape",[6] whileImogen Holst preferred "measured rhythm".[7] However, Justin London has written a book about musical metre, which "involves our initial perception as well as subsequent anticipation of a series of beats that we abstract from the rhythm surface of the music as it unfolds in time".[8] This "perception" and "abstraction" of rhythmic bar is the foundation of human instinctive musical participation, as when we divide a series of identical clock-ticks into "tick–tock–tick–tock".[1] "Rhythms of recurrence" arise from the interaction of two levels of motion, the faster providing the pulse and the slower organizing the beats into repetitive groups.[9] In his bookThe Rhythms of Tonal Music, Joel Lester notes that, "[o]nce a metric hierarchy has been established, we, as listeners, will maintain that organization as long as minimal evidence is present".[10]
"Meter may be defined as a regular, recurring pattern of strong and weak beats. This recurring pattern of durations is identified at the beginning of a composition by a meter signature (time signature). ... Although meter is generally indicated by time signatures, it is important to realize that meter is not simply a matter of notation".[11] A definition of musical metre requires the possibility of identifying a repeating pattern of accented pulses – a "pulse-group" – which corresponds to thefoot in poetry.[citation needed] Frequently a pulse-group can be identified by taking the accented beat as the first pulse in the group andcounting the pulses until the next accent.[12][1]
Frequently metres can be subdivided into a pattern of duples and triples.[12][1]
For example, a3
4 metre consists of three units of a2
8 pulse group, and a6
8 metre consists of two units of a3
8 pulse group. In turn, metric bars may comprise 'metric groups' - for example, a musical phrase or melody might consist of two bars x3
4.[13]
The level of musical organisation implied by musical metre includes the most elementary levels ofmusical form.[6] Metrical rhythm, measured rhythm, and free rhythm are general classes of rhythm and may be distinguished in all aspects of temporality:[14]
Some music, includingchant, has freer rhythm, like the rhythm ofprose compared to that ofverse.[1] Some music, such as some graphically scored works since the 1950s andnon-European music such asHonkyoku repertoire forshakuhachi, may be considered ametric.[15] The music termsenza misura is Italian for "without metre", meaning to play without a beat, usingtime (e.g. seconds elapsed on an ordinary clock) if necessary to determine how long it will take to play the bar.[16][page needed]
Metric structure includes metre,tempo, and allrhythmic aspects that produce temporal regularity or structure, against which the foreground details ordurational patterns of any piece of music are projected.[17] Metric levels may be distinguished: thebeat level is the metric level at which pulses are heard as the basic time unit of the piece.[citation needed] Faster levels are division levels, and slower levels are multiple levels.[17] Arhythmic unit is a durational pattern which occupies a period of time equivalent to apulse or pulses on an underlying metric level.[citation needed]
 | This sectionneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Metre" music – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(October 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Induple metre, eachmeasure is divided into twobeats, or a multiple thereof (quadruple metre).
For example, in the time signature2
4, each bar contains two (2)quarter-note (4) beats. In the time signature6
8, each bar contains twodotted-quarter-note beats.
Corresponding quadruple metres are4
4, which has four quarter-note beats per measure, and12
8, which has four dotted-quarter-note beats per bar.
Triple metre is a metre in which each bar is divided into three beats, or a multiple thereof. For example, in the time signature3
4, each bar contains three (3) quarter-note (4) beats, and with a time signature of9
8, each bar contains three dotted-quarter beats.
Metres with more than four beats are calledquintuple metres (5),sextuple metres (6),septuple metres (7), etc.
In classical music theory it is presumed that only divisions of two or three are perceptually valid, so a metre not divisible by 2 or 3, such as quintuple metre, say5
4, is assumed to either be equivalent to a measure of3
4 followed by a measure of2
4, or the opposite:2
4 then3
4. Higher metres whichare divisible by 2 or 3 are considered equivalent to groupings of duple or triple metre measures; thus,6
4, for example, is rarely used because it is considered equivalent to two measures of3
4. See:hypermetre andadditive rhythm and divisive rhythm.
Higher metres are used more commonly in analysis, if not performance, ofcross-rhythms, as lowest number possible which may be used to count apolyrhythm is thelowest common denominator (LCD) of the two or more metric divisions. For example, much African music is recorded in Western notation as being in12
8, the LCD of 4 and 3.
Simple metre and compound metre are distinguished by the way the beats are subdivided.
Simple metre (or simple time) is a metre in which each beat of the bar divides naturally into two (as opposed to three) equal parts. The top number in the time signature will be 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.
For example, in the time signature3
4, each bar contains three quarter-note beats, and each of those beats divides into twoeighth notes, making it a simple metre. More specifically, it is a simpletriple metre because there are three beats in each measure; simple duple (two beats) or simple quadruple (four) are also common metres.
Compound metre (or compound time), is a metre in which each beat of the bar divides naturally into three equal parts. That is, eachbeat contains a triple pulse.[18] The top number in the time signature will be 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 24, etc.
Compound metres are written with a time signature that shows the number ofdivisions of beats in each bar as opposed to the number of beats. For example, compound duple (two beats, each divided into three) is written as a time signature with a numerator of six, for example,6
8. Contrast this with the time signature3
4, which also assigns six eighth notes to each measure, but by convention connotes a simple triple time: 3 quarter-note beats.
Examples of compound metre include6
8 (compound duple metre),9
8 (compound triple metre), and12
8 (compound quadruple metre).
Although3
4 and6
8 are not to be confused, they use bars of the same length, so it is easy to "slip" between them just by shifting the location of the accents. This interpretational switch has been exploited, for example, byLeonard Bernstein, in the song "America":
Compound metre divided into three parts could theoretically be transcribed into musically equivalent simple metre usingtriplets. Likewise, simple metre can be shown in compound through duples. In practice, however, this is rarely done because it disruptsconducting patterns when thetempo changes. When conducting in6
8, conductors typically provide two beats per bar; however, all six beats may be performed when the tempo is very slow.
Compound time is associated with "lilting" and dancelike qualities. Folk dances often use compound time. ManyBaroque dances are often in compound time: somegigues, thecourante, and sometimes thepassepied and thesiciliana.
The concept of metre in music derives in large part from thepoetic metre ofsong and includes not only the basic rhythm of the foot, pulse-group or figure used but also therhythmic orformal arrangement of such figures into musical phrases (lines, couplets) and of such phrases into melodies, passages or sections (stanzas, verses) to give whatHolst (1963) calls "the time pattern of any song".[19]
Traditional and popular songs may draw heavily upon a limited range of metres, leading to interchangeability of melodies. Earlyhymnals commonly did not include musical notation but simply texts that could be sung to any tune known by the singers that had a matching metre. For example,The Blind Boys of Alabama rendered thehymn "Amazing Grace" to the setting ofThe Animals' version of thefolk song "The House of the Rising Sun". This is possible because the texts share a popular basic four-line (quatrain)verse-form calledballad metre or, in hymnals,common metre, the four lines having a syllable-count of 8–6–8–6 (Hymns Ancient and Modern Revised), the rhyme-scheme usually following suit: ABAB. There is generally a pause in the melody in acadence at the end of the shorter lines so that the underlying musical metre is 8–8–8–8 beats, the cadences dividing this musically into two symmetrical "normal" phrases of four bars each.[20]
In some regional music, for exampleBalkan music (likeBulgarian music, and theMacedonian3+2+2+3+2 metre), a wealth of irregular or compound metres are used. Other terms for this are "additive metre"[21] and "imperfect time".[22][failed verification]
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(October 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Metre is often essential to any style of dance music, such as thewaltz ortango, that has instantly recognizable patterns of beats built upon a characteristic tempo and bar. TheImperial Society of Teachers of Dancing defines the tango, for example, as to be danced in2
4 time at approximately 66 beats per minute. The basic slow step forwards or backwards, lasting for one beat, is called a "slow", so that a full "right–left" step is equal to one2
4 bar.[24]
But step-figures such as turns, the corte and walk-ins also require "quick" steps of half the duration, each entire figure requiring 3–6 "slow" beats. Such figures may then be "amalgamated" to create a series of movements that may synchronise to an entire musical section or piece. This can be thought of as an equivalent ofprosody (see also:prosody (music)).
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(October 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
In music of thecommon practice period (about 1600–1900), there are four different families of time signature in common use:
If the beat is divided into two the metre issimple, if divided into three it iscompound. If each bar is divided into two it isduple and if into three it istriple. Some people also label quadruple, while some consider it as two duples. Any other division is considered additively, as a bar of five beats may be broken into duple+triple (12123) or triple+duple (12312) depending on accent. However, in some music, especially at faster tempos, it may be treated as one unit of five.
In20th-century concert music, it became more common to switch metre—the end ofIgor Stravinsky'sThe Rite of Spring (shown below) is an example. This practice is sometimes calledmixed metres.
Ametric modulation is amodulation from one metric unit or metre to another.
The use ofasymmetrical rhythms – sometimes calledaksak rhythm (the Turkish word for "limping") – also became more common in the 20th century: such metres include quintuple as well as more complexadditive metres along the lines of2+2+3 time, where eachbar has two 2-beat units and a 3-beat unit with a stress at the beginning of each unit. Similar metres are often used inBulgarian folk dances andIndian classical music.
Hypermetre is large-scale metre (as opposed to smaller-scale metre).Hypermeasures consist ofhyperbeats.[25] "Hypermeter is metre, with all its inherent characteristics, at the level where bars act as beats".[26] For example, the four-bar hypermeasures are the prototypical structure forcountry music, in and against which country songs work.[26] In some styles, two- and four-bar hypermetres are common.[citation needed]
The term was coined, together with "hypermeasures", byEdward T.Cone (1968), who regarded it as applying to a relatively small scale, conceiving of a still larger kind of gestural "rhythm" imparting a sense of "an extended upbeat followed by its downbeat"[27]London (2012) contends that in terms of multiple and simultaneous levels of metrical "entrainment" (evenly spaced temporal events "that we internalize and come to expect", p. 9), there is no in-principle distinction between metre and hypermetre; instead, they are the same phenomenon occurring at different levels.[28]
Lee (1985)[verification needed] and Middleton have described musical metre in terms ofdeep structure, usinggenerative concepts to show how different metres (4
4,3
4, etc.) generate many different surface rhythms.[citation needed] For example, the first phrase ofThe Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night", excluding thesyncopation on "night", may be generated from its metre of4
4:[29]
The syncopation may then be added, moving "night" forward one eighth note, and the first phrase is generated.[citation needed]
With polymetre, the bar sizes differ, but the beat remains constant. Since the beat is the same, the various metres eventually agree. (Four bars of7
4 = seven bars of4
4). An example is the second moment, titled "Scherzo polimetrico", ofEdmund Rubbra's Second String Quartet (1951), in which a constant triplet texture holds together overlapping bars of9
8,12
8, and21
8, and barlines rarely coincide in all four instruments.[30]
Withpolyrhythm, the number of beats varies within a fixed bar length. For example, in a 4:3 polyrhythm, one part plays4
4 while the other plays3
4, but the3
4 beats are stretched so that three beats of3
4 are played in the same time as four beats of4
4.[citation needed] More generally, sometimes rhythms are combined in a way that is neither tactus nor bar preserving—the beat differs and the bar size also differs. SeePolytempi.[citation needed]
Research into the perception of polymetre shows that listeners often either extract acomposite pattern that is fitted to a metric framework, or focus on one rhythmic stream while treating others as "noise". This is consistent with theGestalt psychology tenet that "thefigure–ground dichotomy is fundamental to all perception".[31][verification needed][32] In the music, the two metres will meet each other after a specific number of beats. For example, a3
4 metre and4
4 metre will meet after 12 beats.
In "Toads of the Short Forest" (from the albumWeasels Ripped My Flesh), composerFrank Zappa explains: "At this very moment on stage we have drummer A playing in7
8, drummer B playing in3
4, the bass playing in3
4, the organ playing in5
8, the tambourine playing in3
4,[clarification needed] and the alto sax blowing his nose".[33] "Touch And Go", ahit single byThe Cars, has polymetric verses, with the drums and bass playing in5
4, while the guitar, synthesizer, and vocals are in4
4 (the choruses are entirely in4
4).[34]Magma uses extensively7
8 on2
4 (e.g.Mëkanïk Dëstruktïẁ Kömmandöh) and some other combinations.King Crimson's albums of the eighties have several songs that use polymetre of various combinations.[citation needed]
Polymetres are a defining characteristic of the music ofMeshuggah, whose compositions often feature unconventionally timed rhythm figures cycling over a4
4 base.[35]
4 with4 4 | 4 with3 4 | 4 with4 4 |
4 with3 8 | 4 with5 8 | 4 with7 8 |
8 at tempo of 90 bpm | 8 at tempo of 90 bpm | 8 at tempo of 90 bpm |
4 at a tempo of 60 bpm | 4 at a tempo of 60 bpm | 4 at a tempo of 60 bpm |
| Staff | |
|---|---|
| Musical notes | |
| Articulation | |
| Sheet music | |
| Other systems | |
| Related | |
![\new Staff <<
\new voice \relative c' {
\clef percussion
\numericTimeSignature
\time 3/4
\set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 100
\stemDown \repeat volta 2 { g4 d' d }
}
\new voice \relative c'' {
\override NoteHead.style = #'cross
\stemUp \repeat volta 2 { a8[ a] a[ a] a[ a] }
}
>>](/image.pl?url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2f%2fupload.wikimedia.org%2fscore%2fh%2fi%2fhi5b5unz1padlgy7b5jgghe9ncoqm7c%2fhi5b5unz.png&f=jpg&w=240)
![\new Staff <<
\new voice \relative c' {
\clef percussion
\numericTimeSignature
\time 3/4
\set Score.tempoHideNote = ##t \tempo 4 = 100
\stemDown \repeat volta 2 { g4 d' d }
}
\new voice \relative c'' {
\override NoteHead.style = #'cross
\stemUp \repeat volta 2 { a8[ a] a[ a] a[ a] }
}
>>](/image.pl?url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2f%2fupload.wikimedia.org%2fscore%2fq%2f0%2fq09k3q6mf4rqihq957lfeqnncvfjznl%2fq09k3q6m.png&f=jpg&w=240)
![{ \new PianoStaff << \new Staff \relative c'' { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"violin" \clef treble \tempo 8 = 126 \override DynamicLineSpanner.staff-padding = #4 \time 3/16 r16 <d c a fis d>-! r16\fermata | \time 2/16 r <d c a fis d>-! \time 3/16 r <d c a fis d>8-! | r16 <d c a fis d>8-! | \time 2/8 <d c a fis>16-! <e c bes g>->-![ <cis b aes f>-! <c a fis ees>-!] } \new Staff \relative c { \set Staff.midiInstrument = #"violin" \clef bass \time 3/16 d,16-! <bes'' ees,>^\f-! r\fermata | \time 2/16 <d,, d,>-! <bes'' ees,>-! | \time 3/16 d16-! <ees cis>8-! | r16 <ees cis>8-! | \time 2/8 d16^\sf-! <ees cis>-!->[ <d c>-! <d c>-!] } >> }](/image.pl?url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2f%2fupload.wikimedia.org%2fscore%2fk%2fd%2fkd0d2idcbjo5l4e03c969218icat3xx%2fkd0d2idc.png&f=jpg&w=240)
