Music Theory
Rhythm
Etymology: Ancient Greek: ῥυθμός "a measured flow of movement, vibration, proportion, arrangement, shape, and manner."
Rhythm is an essential element of music that governs a musical composition's timing, duration, and arrangement of sounds and silences. This provides structure, cohesion, and forward motion to a piece of music and is a fundamental aspect of musical expression. Rhythm is created through the repetition and variation of basic rhythmic patterns and can be manipulated in various ways to create different moods, emotions, and styles. Whether simple or complex, rhythm is a vital component of music and plays a key role in shaping a piece's overall character and impact. In this section, we will introduce some of the most fundamental elements of rhythm including: Pulse, Meter, Tempo, Rhythmic Duration, Subdivisions, Syncopations, Time Signatures & and more.
Pulse
(Latin: Pulsus - pello + sus, pellere (the act of striking, beat); Ancient Greek: ψάλλω "Psalm, chant, hymn, praise) Both poetic and musical pulse refers to the regular and steady underlying heartbeat that provides the foundation for a compositional work. It is the basic unit of time in music and establishes a rhythmic framework that allows the listener to perceive and follow the passage of time within a musical composition.
Tempo
Musical tempo refers to the speed or pace at which a musical piece is performed. It is usually indicated at the beginning of a piece of music by a specific word or phrase, such as "Allegro" (fast) or "Adagio" (slow), which gives the musician an idea of how fast or slow the music should be played. The tempo can also be indicated by a metronome marking, which uses beats per minute (BPM) to measure the speed. The tempo of a piece of music can have a significant impact on its emotional impact, and can be used by the composer and performer to create a sense of tension, excitement, relaxation, or other moods.
Meter
Meter refers to the recurring pattern of strong and weak beats that organizes the pulse of a piece of music or poetry into a regular and predictable structure. The meter provides a sense of rhythmic regularity and stability and helps to establish a piece's rhythmic undercurrent and mood.
Many types of meters exist, particularly in traditional folk music and poetry. These meters group divisions of beats into specific patterns and can be grouped into equal and unequal parts. These patterns reflect the character and flavor of various traditions, cultures, moods, and means of emotional expression.
The use of consistent rhythmic patterns has been used for millennia, by multiple cultures, for multiple reasons. One of the most functional aspects of meter and rhythm is that it aids with memory and significantly improves the retention and preservation of material. This was especially important before the invention of the Printing Press in 1436 AD. Many significant works we are familiar with today were preserved through ancient rhythmic and musical traditions, including the Bible. However, Hebrew cantillation uses meter a bit differently than the meters we are discussing with Western Notation.
It was a widespread practice for important histories and stories to be set to poetic meter and music. This happened in virtually every civilization known to man, from the Ancient Egyptians, Sumerians, and Minoans to the Polynesian Hookahs, Native American Songscapes, and African Spirituals. This helped to preserve the memories of significant events, people, religious beliefs, and cultural identity. These oral traditions were taught, memorized, and passed down through multiple generations in the form of hymns, chants, songs, dances, rhymes, myths, and legends until they were finally able to be recorded. As various communities learned and developed systems and technologies for linguistic and musical literacy, the surviving oral traditions could be recorded and preserved in various formats. Metric poetic forms are at the heart of many monumental literary works such as Beowulf (recorded between 975 and 1025 AD), the Iliad ( recorded between 725 and 675 BC), Odyssey (recorded between 800 and 700 BC), and well as more modern works by poets such as Shakespeare, Chaucer, the Grimm Brothers, and countless others.
Some examples of well-known meters include:
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The famous "To be or not to be" soliloquy from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet is written in iambic pentameter, a common meter in English poetry and Shakespeare's plays. In iambic pentameter, each line consists of ten syllables with alternating stressed and unstressed syllables, resulting in a "da-DUM" rhythm. ( How to Speak Verse in Shakespeare) Another example of iambic meter is "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief", although this is an example of Iambic Octameter.
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The nursery rhymes "Jack and Jill," "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and the "ABC Song" were all written in trochaic meter, a standard meter in English poetry and children's songs. In trochaic meter, each line consists of four feet of eight syllables that alternate between stressed and unstressed syllables beginning with the downbeat, resulting in a "DUM-da" rhythm. (Trochaic Meter Tutorial)
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"The Night Before Christmas" by Clement Clarke Moore, and Dr. Seuss's "One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish" are excellent examples of Anapestic meter, with its bouncy and rolling rhythm that can be quite lively and fun. (Poetic Meter: Anapestic)
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Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" are epic poems composed in ancient Greece and are considered among the greatest works of Western literature. The meter used in both verses is a dactylic hexameter. This rhythmic pattern is characterized by six feet per line, with each foot consisting of one long syllable followed by two short syllables. This pattern is sometimes called "long-short-short" or "dactyls," giving the poetry a distinctive and memorable sound. Dactylic hexameter was a popular meter for epic poetry in ancient Greece and was used by other poets besides Homer. The meter allowed the poets to create a sense of grandeur and awe and convey a wide range of emotions and moods. The use of dactylic hexameter in Homer's "Iliad" and "Odyssey" has profoundly influenced Western literature and helped establish the epic form as one of the most powerful and enduring forms of poetry. (Wes Callihan on the Dactylic Hexameter in Homer's Iliad)
The rhythmic properties of these examples help the readers and audience members to learn and remember the materials and set the mood and tone. Today's systems in Western Musical notation were derived from these ancient metric devices.
Transitioning into Western Rhythmic Notation
Neumes, Ligatures, & and the development of the Musical Note
Before the development of Western Music Notation, musicians would use various symbols to help them remember the melodies of various texts. The melodies are called plainchant, plainsong, or cantus firmus, "fixed song" in Latin. These traditional songs and melodies were memorized and passed down orally for many generations. Priest of multiple religious traditions dedicated their entire lives to learning and teaching these oral musical traditions. This was a daunting but necessary task because it was how they preserved their histories and how they learned and taught scripture to their communities.
Different communities developed different symbols as mnemonic devices to aid them in the preservation of their oral traditions, and these symbols changed and developed over time, even within the same communities.
For example, just following the Babylonian exile, the Jews used letters as mnemonic reminders to help them remember melodic lines. These symbols developed over time into what we now call Trope symbols. Scholars have identified markings in the Dead Sea Scrolls that they believe to be early Trope symbols, similar cantillation symbols have been found in later Slavic Hymns. Around the 6th century AD, the Jewish Trope symbols began to be codified by the Masoretic Scribes, and thes symbols they formalized by the ninth century are still used today.
In Christian tradition, similar practices were observed to preserving hymns and chants using symbols that reflected Byzantine "Greek" traditions. Most scholars agree that the Byzantine Cantillation and Jewish Trope were at some point either related or derived from a similar source. However, the symbols and traditions of different communities diverged over time and developed into their own distinctive styles and practices.
In the Byzantine tradition, certain symbols represented intervallic relationships, and others indicated rhythmic patterns. In both Jewish and Christian traditions the cantillation markings were written into the texts, usually above but also below the written words (especially with Trope).
Around the 10th century, when the Benedictine monk Guido d'Arezzo, wrote his famous treatise, Micrologus de Disciplina Artis Musicae, Guido drew largely upon previous Music Traditions. From the previous cantillation symbols that represented different intervallic relationships, Guido simplified the concept by placing modified neumes on the hand in combination with solfege syllables to indicate and teach the movement of the vocal line, this developed into the musical staff and set in motion the development of Western Musical Notation. At this point, the vocal markings were referred to as neumes. The word neume from the Greek word πνεῦμα which means "breath" or "Spirit." It is significant to note that this is the same word used in reference to the Holy Ghost.
Later, between the 11th and 13th centuries, these principles were reformed to incorporate rhythmic elements into the formation of the neumes themselves, these rhythmic symbols were called ligatures, from the Latin root ligō (“tie, bind”) + -tūra. which indicates the action noun of something "tied or bound." Like little stitches, the ligatures helped specify each neume's length, accent, and ornamentation. They also helped to expand polyphonic works, which included two or more different notes being performed simultaneously.
Jewish Samples
Symbols found in the Dead Sea Scrolls, believed to be cantillation markings. Eric Werner "The Sacred Bridge."
Some examples of Jewish Masoretic Cantillation symbols developed between the 6th and 9th centuries AD and are still used today. Examples include notated interpretations
A sample of how notation symbols appear in Hebrew texts. In this sample, the cantillation symbols are exaggerated to stand out from the niqqud vowel markings.
Greek Samples
The sample above represents Greek Cantillation Notation. These symbols were also written into the texts as mnemonic devices to help priests and singers remember melodies and chants that they had learned orally. This is demonstrated in the sample below.
This was the system that was primarily used to record Gregorian Chant, and it continued through the Renaissance Period and into the Baroque Era (1600-1750 AD). During these centuries continuing advancements were made to music notation and this develop into the system we use today.
Modern Rhythmic Notation
Note Names
Bars and Measures
In Western Music Notation, the basic unit of meter is the μέτρον "measure" or "bar," which is a group of beats that is separated from the next group on the staff by a vertical line called a "barline." The beats within a measure are typically organized into a pattern of strong and weak accents, with the strongest accent usually falling on the first beat of the measure. A double bar line indicates the end of the musical section.
Time Signatures
A time signature is added to the staff to indicate the rhythmic meter of a musical piece. It consists of two numbers stacked on top of each other. The top number represents the number of beats in each measure, while the bottom number represents the note value that corresponds to each beat.
In the example pictured, we have a 2/2 time signature. The top number tells the reader that there are 2 beats in each measure and the bottom number specifies that the Half Note gets a full beat. If the bottom number were a 4, that would indicate that the quarter note gets the beat. If both the top and bottom numbers were 4, a 4/4 time signature would ind indicate that there are 4 quarter notes in each measure.
There are many types of time signatures. Like the poetic meters discussed previously, each time signature creates a mood that characterizes the personality and flavor of the composition, especially when layered with additional elements. For example, the 3/4 time signature is used for waltzes, and it frequently has an intimate dance quality to it. Whereas the 4/4 time signature is used in marches, mambos, quickstep, swing, salsa, foxtrot, and other types of popular dances, providing a lively and upbeat nature. However, 4/4, or Common time, is also frequently used for ballads, and this time signature is ideal for poetry written in Iambic or Trochaic Tetrameter.
Western musical meters are generally classified into two distinctions: Simple or Compound Meter, depending on the way in which the beats are divided and grouped.
SIMPLE METER
Simple meter is characterized by an underlying pattern of regular beats or pulses that can be subdivided into groups of two equal parts; this is known as duple meter. As such, the lower number always depicts a power of 2, usually 2, 4, or sometimes 8.
Examples of simple meters include the following time signatures: 2/4, 3/4, 4/4 (common), 2/2 ( cut), and sometimes 3/8 (in slower tempos).
The following example demonstrates Simple Meter in a 3/4 Time Signature. Notice that each beat is typically divided into groups of 2.
COMPOUND METER
Unlike Simple meter, which divides the beat into two equal parts, Compound meter divides the beat into groups of 3 equal parts. Therefore a dotted note represents the beat, and the bottom number is usually written in using three notes to represent each beat (usually eighth notes). The upper number is usually a multiple of 3: most frequently 6, 9, or 12.
Common examples of compound meters include the following time signatures: 6/8, 9/8, 12/8. Less frequently used examples might include 6/4, 9/4, 12/4, 6/16, 9/16, etc.
The following example demonstrates Compound Meter in a 6/8 Time Signature. Notice that 3 eighth notes are combined to form a single beat on a dotted quarter note.
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The song "America" from the musical "West Side Story" by Leonard Bernstein is written in a mixed meter, with a shifting and irregular pattern that blends elements of duple and triple meter. Specifically, the song alternates between a 6/8 meter and a 3/4 meter, giving it a lively and syncopated feel that reflects the energy and excitement of the song's lyrics. The verses are primarily in 6/8 meter, while the chorus and bridge sections are in 3/4 meter, and the melody and rhythm feature frequent accents on offbeats, creating a distinctive Latin-inspired groove.