The perception of rhythm in non-tonal music: Rhythmic contours in the music of edgard varèse

Abstract

This paper develops a theory that models nonbeat-based rhythms as “rhythmic contours” of relative longs and shorts, drawing upon discussions of temporal spaces appearing in recent work of Robert Morris and David Lewin and upon various music-psychological investigations of rhythmic perception. A new type of temporal space is proposed: a duration space (d-space) analogous to Morris’s contour space, in which elements are ordered sequentially from short to long. After developing equivalence relations for d-space segments, illustrated by excerpts from Edgard Varese’s Octandre the paper concludes with an analysis of Density 21.5 that focuses upon relationships among rhythmic contours. © 1991, Society for Music Theory, Inc.