Summary:
Chapter 5 unwinds the third of the five principal musical parameters: rhythm, which is given the anthropomorphic simile of the “(bodily) movement of music”—that is, the intensity and motion of our body as we move in response to something. The chapter begins with the basics of rhythm: beats, note values, and common meters. It continues by diving into the more nuanced aspects of rhythm—especially syncopation and groove. It then discusses the varying orientations of “rhythmic feel” common in Western music: straight, swing, and shuffle—including some relevant historical background of the latter two. The chapter then explores some of the “tricky” aspects of rhythm: irregular meter, tuplets, mixed meters, and polyrhythm. The chapter concludes with the more flexible side of rhythm, generated through rubato (stolen time) and free (or non-metric) rhythm.
Supplements:
( More on duple and triple meters ):
To be sure, 2/4 and 3/4 are not the only duple and triple meters—for example 2/2 is a frequently used duple meter (see footnote on p. 123)—though they are certainly the most common today. Further the distinction between 2/4 and 4/4 is nowadays more academic than practical.
( More on cut time ):
Technically cut time is equal to 2/2: 2 beats per measure, with the half note getting one beat—whereby quarter notes become the “ands” of beats 1 and 2. For simplicity sake, therefore, it is rewritten in 2/4, where the principal beats and “ands” are, as is more typical, aligned with the quarter and eighth notes, respectively.
( More on 12/8 meter ):
Technically speaking, 12/8 is a “compound quadruple” meter, since there are 4 beats per measure, where of the 4 principal each beat is a dotted quarter—each subdivided into 3 eighth notes.
( More on triplets and the ambiguity of 3/4 and 6/8 meter ):
A similar metric ambiguity can be found, moreover, between 3/4 and 6/8 meters—one that was in fact a notable concern for analysts at Savage Beast, as it continues to be at Pandora today, particularly for the pop/rock realm where notation is often lacking. Both meters are substantially defined by rhythms in groups of 3, but, as I wrote in the Main Genome Manual:
There is a fundamental difference: in 3/4 (simple triple), the basic emphasis is on the “downbeat” (first beat) of each bar, where each “1” is weighted heavily—that is, 1 -2-3 | 1 -2-3 | 1 -2-3 | 1 -2-3… In 6/8 (compound duple), by contrast, there is a higher-order duple orientation, where beyond the downbeat, there is a strong emphasis on the “back” part of the meter—that is, 1 -2-3- 4 -5-6 | 1 -2-3- 4 -5-6... where the “4” often coincides with a snare backbeat.
Given this perspective, a good many pop/rock songs that might be conceived by their creators as in 3/4 meter may come off as sounding more in 6/8, given the propensity of drummers to place a snare hit on the 4th beat. Indeed, such is the case with the Kelly Clarkson example above (Figure 5.7)—although the melody’s rhythmic emphasis (and the song’s sheet music) is in 3/4. Such potential ambiguity led me to conclude this MGP Manual entry by saying, “Admittedly, there may be some instances in which it is difficult to tell, and as such you will have to use your best judgment.”
Page 133
Realizations of several piano rolls played by Joplin (including Maple Leaf Rag ) can be heard online, as here: https://midimusic.github.io/joplin/rolls/index.html#self
( Example of swing in early New Orleans / Dixieland style ):
Several recordings of the ODJB—e.g., “Livery Stable Blues”, from 1917—can be found on YouTube, etc.
( Example of common interchangeable usage of swing and shuffle ):
To cite an example of the confusion, on the Beatles’ “Revolution 1”, Rolling Stone Magazine , in their “100 Greatest Beatles Songs” (September 19, 2011) states, “The first version of ‘Revolution’ the Beatles recorded was a slow, bluesy shuffle that eventually became "Revolution 1." By contrast, in his comprehensive blog “Beatles Music History”, Dave Rybaczewski writes,“[‘Revolution 1’] is presented with a slow swing -style beat in a 4/4 time signature.”
( More on “additive” versus “divisive” rhythm ):
“Additive” rhythm is commonly contrasted to “divisive” rhythm: divisive refers to an “isometric” division, where a measure is regularly and equally divided into successively smaller and weaker subdivisions (as in 4/4 meter—from 1 whole note to 2 half notes to 4 quarters to 8 eighth notes, etc.); whereas additive is a “heterometric” division, formed by combining irregular or uneven groupings (as in 5/8 meter—consistently combining eighth notes as 2+3, for example).
( More on possible complex rhythmic complexities ):
Beyond the “convolutions” listed above are contemporary techniques with such wonky names as “metric modulation”, “micro-metric modulation,” “temporal modulation”, “beat displacement”, “superimposed rhythms”, and various computer-generated approaches. No shortage of ways to make music tough to dance to.
( More on Chopin’s approach to Chopin ):
Indeed, based on the contemporary accounts of his playing, along with the way Chopin often notated his music, Hudson ( Stolen Time ) suggests that “in Chopin’s rubato, the accompaniment was strict, the melody free.”
( More on the arguments of strict tempo for Gregorian chant ):
The proportional argument at the note level is supported, for example, by the medieval theorist Aribo in his De Musica (c. 1070): “In earlier times not only the inventors of melodies but also the singers themselves used great circumspection that everything should be invented and sung in proportion.” By contrast, the notion that proportionality was conceived not at the level of individual notes but rather of chant phrases (neumes) is suggested by the influential theorist Guido d’Arezzo in his Micrologus (c. 1026).
( More on the Angel Records’ Chant album ):
It didn’t hurt that the recording was aggressively marketed by EMI as “an antidote to the stress of modern life.”
( More on traditional behavior around cadenzas ):
Cadenzas are traditionally set up in the orchestra by a strong “second inversion” (with the 5th degree on the bottom) tonic chord, functioning as the dominant. At that point, the soloist performs the cadenza, eventually building up to a climactic return of the tonic chord in root position, and a concluding orchestral passage.
( More on traditional graphic notation ):
With graphic notation, performers are given partial or total freedom in their approach to various musical parameters, including rhythm. So, for example, in cases where a set or “block” of notes are provided to multiple performers with no fixed rhythm, the result would be, by default, non-metrical. From a listening standpoint, the experience of an aleatoric rhythm may be indistinguishable from that of a very complex one—irregularly metered, highly syncopated, etc.—deliberately notated by a composer. See Keczmerski, John Frank. The Determinate Nature of Indeterminate Music. San Diego: University of California, 1995.
Principal Bibliography:
Justin London, “Rhythm,” Grove Music Online
Justin London, “Tempo (i),” Grove Music Online (2001).
Curt Sachs, Rhythm and Tempo: A Study in Music History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1953)
Richard Hudson, Stolen Time: e History of Tempo Rubato (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994)
David Epstein, Shaping Time: Music, the Brain, and Performance (New York: Schirmer Books, 1995)
Martin R. L. Clayton, “Free Rhythm: Ethnomusicology and the Study of Music without Metre,” Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London 59, no. 2 (1996): 323–32
Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), 1983.
External Links:
"Rhythm" (Encyclopaedia Britannica)