Loud Rests and Other Strange Metric Phenomena (or, Meter as Heard)

Abstract

This is an excerpt from a work-in-progress, portions of which will be read at the 1993 meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition. In order to give an adequate account of “loud” rests, metric articulations, and meter's propulsive character (as noted by theorists such as Berry and Zuckerkandl), a dynamic model of meter is proposed. In framing this model a brief overview of theoretical strategies for metric models is given. The dynamic model regards meter as a listener-generated framework for the understanding musical time. The theoretical implications of the dynamic model are discussed, as it challenges traditional notions of meter as “part of the music,” that is, as musical parameter with the same ontological status as pitch, loudness, timbre, texture, and rhythm.