Tempo and Meter

Some Basic Concepts and Terms

• Physical vs. psychological (subjective, perceived) phenomena, quantities
• Periodic patterns, consisting of acoustic events
• Tempo: (actual physical) rate (frequency) at which a given pattern is played
• Duration: (actual) time length of an event or interval
• Inter-onset interval
• Relative duration: (actual) duration of an event or interval in comparison to others
• Perceived tempo, duration
• Beats: sense of evenly spaced temporal units, usually marked by onsets of events, but may also be silent
• Meter: sense of a periodic sequence of subjectively stronger and weaker beats that characterize
• Hierarchical structure: a structure with levels; at each level an item consists of one or more items at a lower level

  

• The hierarchical nature of meter and grouping: at each level there is a pattern of equally-spaced beats, with intervals which are 2 or 3 times the length of intervals at the next level

  

• Stream segregation: the separation of a complex acoustic signal into separate events, for example, different voices when people are talking simultaneously, different instruments in an orchestra

Tempo

• Tempos that are too slow to perceive periodicity
• Tempos that are too fast to perceive periodicity
• Preferred (personal) tempo
  • Spontaneous tapping
  • Preferred perceptual tempo
  • Overestimation of shorter, underestimation of longer intervals
  • Spontaneous motor behavior around this rate

"Subjective" Rhythm

• Isochronous pulse trains: sequences of evenly spaced, identical events
• People attribute a meter (regular pattern of strong and weak beats) to an isochronous pulse train: one event in each cycle is heard as more prominent than the other(s), and the interval before this event is heard as longer
• Variation in sequence
  • Intensity: similar grouping, interval(s) within group perceived as shorter
  • Duration: longer element ends group, perception of relative intervals
  • Intervals: grouping, length of interval determines which element begins group
  • Frequency (pitch)
    • Higher elements tend to be perceived as accented
    • Turn-around pitch tends to be perceived as accented
    • Least frequent element tends to be perceived as initial
    • First element after a jump tends to be perceived as accented

Take me back to the Rhythm and Cognition Home Page.

Last updated: 10 October 1995
URL: http://www.indiana.edu/~gasser/meter3.html
Comments: gasser@salsa.indiana.edu
Copyright 1995, The Trustees of Indiana University