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Metre (music)
In music, metre (Am. meter) refers to the regularly
recurring patterns and accents such as bars and beats.
Unlike rhythm, metric onsets are not necessarily
sounded, but are nevertheless expected by the
listener.
Western music inherited the concept of metre from poetry (Scholes 1977; Latham 2002b) where it denotes:
the number of lines in a verse; the number of syllables in each line; and the arrangement of those syllables as
long or short, accented or unaccented (Scholes 1977; Latham 2002b). The first coherent system of rhythmic
notation in modern Western music was based on rhythmic modes derived from the basic types of metrical
unit in the quantitative meter of classical ancient Greek and Latin poetry (Hoppin 1978, 221).
Later music for dances such as the pavane and galliard consisted of musical phrases to accompany a fixed
sequence of basic steps with a defined tempo and time 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 (Merriam-Webster 2015) involving sequences of notes, words, or movements that may last
four, eight or sixteen bars.
Contents
Metric structure
Frequently encountered types of metre
Metres classified by the number of beats per measure
Duple metre
Triple metre
Metres classified by the subdivisions of a beat
Simple metre
Compound metre
Metre in song
Metre in dance music
Metre in classical music
Changing metre
Hypermetre
Polymetre
Examples
See also
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Sources
Metric structure
The term metre is not very precisely defined (Scholes 1977). Stewart MacPherson preferred to speak of "time"
and "rhythmic shape" (MacPherson (1930, 3)), while Imogen Holst preferred "measured rhythm" (Holst
(1963, 17)). 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" (London 2004, 4). 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" (Scholes 1977). "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 (Yeston 1976,
50–52). In his book The 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" (Lester
1986, 77).
Metric levels: beat level shown in middle with division notation" (Benward and Saker 2003, 9). A
levels above and multiple levels below. definition of musical metre requires the
possibility of identifying a repeating pattern
of accented pulses — a "pulse-group" —
which corresponds to the foot in poetry. Frequently a pulse-group can be identified by taking the accented
beat as the first pulse in the group and counting the pulses until the next accent (MacPherson 1930, 5;
Scholes 1977). Frequently metres can be broken down into a pattern of duples and triples (MacPherson 1930,
5; Scholes 1977).
The level of musical organisation implied by musical metre includes the most elementary levels of musical
form (MacPherson 1930, 3).
Metrical rhythm, measured rhythm, and free rhythm are general classes of rhythm and may be distinguished
in all aspects of temporality (Cooper 1973, 30):
Metrical rhythm, by far the most common class in Western music, is where each time value is a multiple
or fraction of a fixed unit (beat, see paragraph below), and normal accents reoccur regularly, providing
systematic grouping (bars, divisive rhythm).
Measured rhythm is where each time value is a multiple or fraction of a specified time unit but there are
not regularly recurring accents (additive rhythm).
Free rhythm is where there is neither.
Some music, including chant, has freer rhythm, like the rhythm of prose compared to that of verse (Scholes
1977). Some music, such as some graphically scored works since the 1950s and non-European music such as
Honkyoku repertoire for shakuhachi, may be considered ametric (Karpinski 2000, 19). The music term
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senza misura is Italian for "without metre", meaning to play without a beat, using time to bar how long it will
take to play the bar (Forney and Machlis 2007,).
Metric structure includes metre, tempo, and all rhythmic aspects that produce temporal regularity or
structure, against which the foreground details or durational patterns of any piece of music are projected
(Wittlich 1975, chapt. 3). Metric levels may be distinguished: the beat level is the metric level at which
pulses are heard as the basic time unit of the piece. Faster levels are division levels, and slower levels are
multiple levels (Wittlich 1975, chapt. 3). A rhythmic unit is a durational pattern which occupies a period of
time equivalent to a pulse or pulses on an underlying metric level.
Duple metre
In duple metre, each measure is divided into two beats, or a multiple thereof
(quadruple metre).
Compound duple drum
2, each bar contains two (2) quarter-note pattern: divides each of
For example, in the time signature 4
two beats into three
6, each bar contains two dotted-quarter-note
(4) beats. In the time signature 8 Play
beats. Corresponding quadruple metres are 4
4, which has four quarter-note
beats per measure, and 12
8 , which has four dotted-quarter-note beats per bar.
Triple metre
Triple metre is a metre in which each bar is divided into three beats, or a
3, each bar contains
multiple thereof. For example, in the time signature 4
9, each bar
three (3) quarter-note (4) beats, and with a time signature of 8
Simple triple drum pattern:
contains three dotted-quarter beats. divides each of three beats
into two Play
Simple metre
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.
Simple quadruple drum pattern:
The top number in the time signature will be 2, 3, 4, 5, etc.
divides each of four beats into two
For example, in the time signature 3 Play
4, each bar contains three
quarter-note beats, and each of those beats divides into two eighth
notes, making it a simple metre. More specifically, it is a simple
triple metre because there are three beats in each measure; simple duple (two beats) or simple quadruple
(four) are also common metres.
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Compound metre
6(compound duple metre) has two beats divided into three equal parts, i.e., a primary accent on the first
8
quarter note, and a subordinate accent on the fourth quarter note.
9(compound triple metre) has three beats divided into three parts, i.e., a primary accent on the first
8
quarter note, and subordinate accents on the fourth and seventh quarter notes.
12 (compound quadruple metre) has four beats divided into three equal parts, i.e., a primary accent on
8
the first quarter note, a secondary accent on the seventh quarter note, and subordinate accents on the
fourth and tenth quarter notes.
3 and 6 are not to be confused, they use bars of the same length, so it is easy to "slip" between them
Although 4 8
just by shifting the location of the accents. This interpretational switch has been exploited, for example, by
Leonard Bernstein, in the song "America":
Compound metre divided into three parts could theoretically be transcribed into musically equivalent simple
metre using triplets. Likewise, simple metre can be shown in compound through duples. In practice, however,
6,
this is rarely done because it disrupts conducting patterns when the tempo changes. When conducting in 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.
Many Baroque dances are often in compound time: some gigues, the courante, and sometimes the passepied
and the siciliana.
Metre in song
The concept of metre in music derives in large part from the poetic metre of song and includes not only the
basic rhythm of the foot, pulse-group or figure used but also the rhythmic or formal arrangement of such
figures into musical phrases (lines, couplets) and of such phrases into melodies, passages or sections (stanzas,
verses) to give what Holst (1963, 18) calls "the time pattern of any song" (See also: Form of a musical
passage).
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In some regional music, for example Balkan music (like Bulgarian music, and the Macedonian 3+2+2+3+2
metre), a wealth of irregular or compound metres are used. Other terms for this are "additive metre" (London
2001, §I.8) and "imperfect time" (Read 1964, 147).
2, 2 , 2 …
Simple duple—two or four beats to a bar, each divided by two, the top number being "2" or "4" (4 8 2
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4, 4 , 4
…). When there are four beats to a bar, it is
4 8 2
alternatively referred to as "quadruple" time.
3 )—three beats to a bar, each divided by
Simple triple ( 4
two, the top number being "3" (43, 3, 3 …)
8 2
Compound duple—two beats to a bar, each divided by three,
6, 6 , 6 …)
the top number being "6" (8 16 4
Compound triple—three beats to a bar, each divided by three,
9 , 9 , 9)
the top number being "9" (8 16 4
Changing metre
In twentieth-century concert music, it became more common to switch metre—the end of Igor Stravinsky's
The Rite of Spring is an example. A metric modulation is a modulation from one metric unit or metre to
another. The use of asymmetrical rhythms also became more common: such metres include quintuple as well
as more complex additive metres along the lines of 2+2+3 time, where each bar has two 2-beat units and a
3-beat unit with a stress at the beginning of each unit. Similar metres are used in various folk music as well as
some music by Philip Glass. Additive metres may be conceived either as long, irregular metres or as
constantly changing short metres.
Hypermetre
Hypermetre is large-scale metre (as opposed to surface-level metre) created by hypermeasures, which
consist of hyperbeats (Stein 2005, 329). "Hypermeter is meter, with all its inherent characteristics, at the
level where bars act as beats" (Neal 2000, 115). For example, the four-bar hyperbar is the prototypical
structure for country music, in and against which country songs work (Neal 2000, 115). In some styles, two-
and four-bar hypermetres are common.
The term was coined, together with "hypermeasures", by Edward 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” (Berry and Van Solkema 2013, §5(vi)). London (2012, 25)
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4 4
4 4
2
4
2 1 1 1 1 1 1
4 4 4 4 4 4 4
1 1 1 1
8 8 8 8
The syncopation may then be added, moving "night" forward one eighth note, and the first phrase is
generated ( Play ).
Polymetre
With polymetre, the bar sizes differ, but the beat remains constant. Since the beat is the same, the various
metres eventually agree. (Four bars of 47 = seven bars of 4
4). An example is the second moment, titled "Scherzo
polimetrico", of Edmund Rubbra's Second String Quartet (1951), in which a constant triplet texture holds
9,
together overlapping bars of 8 12, and 21, and barlines rarely coincide in all four instruments (Rubbra 1953,
8 8
41).
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With Polyrhythm, the number of beats varies within a fixed bar length. For example, in a 4:3 polyrhythm, one
part plays 4 3, but the
while the other plays 4 3 beats are stretched so that three beats of 3 are played in the
4 4 4
same time as four beats of 4.
4
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. See Polytempi.
Research into the perception of polymetre shows that listeners often either extract a composite pattern that is
fitted to a metric framework, or focus on one rhythmic stream while treating others as "noise". This is
consistent with the Gestalt psychology tenet that "the figure–ground dichotomy is fundamental to all
perception" (Boring 1942, 253; London 2004, 49–50). In the music, the two metres will meet each other after
3 metre and 4 metre will meet after 12 beats.
a specific number of beats. For example, a 4 4
In "Toads of the Short Forest" (from the album Weasels Ripped My Flesh), composer Frank Zappa explains:
"At this very moment on stage we have drummer A playing in 87 , drummer B playing in 4
3, the bass playing in 3
4
5 , the tambourine playing in 3, and the alto sax blowing his nose" (Mothers of Invention
, the organ playing in 8 4
1970). "Touch And Go", a hit single by The Cars, has polymetric verses, with the drums and bass playing in 45,
while the guitar, synthesizer, and vocals are in 4 4
4 (the choruses are entirely in 4) (Cars 1981, 15).
Polymetres are a defining characteristic of the djent subgenre of metal, first pioneered by The Swedish metal
band Meshuggah frequent use of polymetres, with unconventionally timed rhythm figures cycling over a 4
4
base (Pieslak 2007).
Examples
Polymetres—video
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Various metres—sound
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12at tempo of
6 at tempo of 90 bpm 9 at tempo of 90 bpm 8
8 8 90 bpm
See also
Metre (hymn)
Metre (poetry)
Triple metre
Duple and quadruple metre
Sextuple metre
Composite rhythm
Counting (music)
Hymns and hymn tunes
Hymn tune
List of musical works in unusual time signatures
Tala
Tuplet
Wazn
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