Tutorial 3 – Sound and Silence: The Perception of Rhythm 1 Introduction Imagine a piece of music consisting of continuous, unbroken sound, its pitches

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Tutorial 3 – Sound and Silence:The Perception of Rhythm

Introduction

Imagine a piece of music consisting of continuous, unbroken sound, its pitches rising and falling in sweeping lines with no distinction between any of the notes, like the sound a child produces on a ‘swanee’ whistle or ‘slide’ whistle by blowing continuously while slowly moving the plunger in and out. Such a composition is realisable, but would seem very different from most known world music of the late twentieth century. In the music familiar to the majority of us, silence is every bit as essential as sound.

We mostly hear sounds of varying lengths separated by short silences. In order to show this graphically, we use symbols which have a beginning and an end, and which are separated by blank paper.

Figure 3.1 Graphic representation of sound and silence

Chapter 3–Sound and Silence

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Listen to music example 18: an aural realisation of the graphically notatedrhythm in figure 3.1: (a) as a melody; (b) as a rhythm on the one pitched note.

Beat and metre

The basic unit of rhythmic organisation is usually called the beat, or pulse. Where it exists, musical beat is inexorable; like a heartbeat it persists throughout the life of the piece, only ceasing when the music ends. Whenever the piece is played, there it is again, even if the performance is only in the mind (aural memory) of the listener.

Listen to music example 19:excerpt of ‘unpulsed’ music (non-metric music).

Listen to music example 20:excerpt of strongly ‘pulsed’ music (metric music).

Music can exist without a strong sense of underlying pulse, but where it is present, it is an important aural organiser.


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Music with a strong pulse has been devised to accompany forms of manual labour in some cultures: for example, Negro work songs and sea shanties.

Listen to music example 21: a Negro work song.

Try to imagine yourself tilling the soil or hauling a cotton bale in time with the beat of the song.

Agreement about the beat enables musical ensembles of all sizes to play together successfully. In a symphony orchestra, is an important part of the conductor’s responsibility to determine how quickly or slowly the beat proceeds. Discrepancies between individual players’ perceptions of the pulse has disastrous results for the performance of a piece.

TempoTempo is an Italian term1 which refers to whether the beat is fast or slow, or becoming faster or slower. A piece in slow tempo moves at a slow pace. It is a concept which is defined by the speed of the beat, for example, a piece in slow tempo has a beat pattern which is moving at a slow rate.


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Figure 3.2 Diagrammaticalrepresentation of a slow beat

Quickening the speed of the beat will change the tempo of the music, often altering the entire character or mood of the piece.

Figure 3.3 Diagrammaticalrepresentation of afast-moving beat

Listen to music example 22: ‘Left Bank Waltz’ by Peter Sculthorpe,played at (a) normal tempo, (b) double tempo

We will return to this concept in chapter 4 when dealing with ‘Expressive elements’, since it is an important aspect of the interpretive role of the performer in the production of music. At that point, we will be looking at the effects of varying the tempo—of making it faster or slower by degrees.


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Simple metresAnother important organisational aspect of the beat is the feeling of a regular pattern of beat accentuation. When listening to pulsed music, a listener can hear the pulse divided into groups by an accent or emphasis placed upon certain beats. A strong or accented beat is usually considered to be the first in each group. There are three common groupings of beats which occur in this way (see figures 3.4–3.6).

Figure 3.4 Beats grouped in twos (> denotes accented beat)

Listen to music example 23: ‘The British Grenadiers’, counting in ‘duple metre’(i.e. beats grouped in twos).

Music example 23 has clapped accents on the first of each group of two, followed by a short excerpt in ‘duple metre’, where the beats are grouped in twos, at the same tempo as the counting. The counting will not be superimposed over the musical excerpt, but as you listen, you should notice how the beat pattern you heard previously ‘fits’ with the piece. If you have trouble hearing this, listen again to the counting example and tap a pencil on the first of each group of two; continue to tap at this rate during the playing of the musical excerpt.


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Listen to music example 23: ‘The British Grenadiers’,counting in ‘duple metre’ (i.e. beats grouped in twos).

Music example 23 has clapped accents on the first of each group of two, followed by a short excerpt in ‘duple metre’, where the beats are grouped in twos, at the same tempo as the counting. The counting will not be superimposed over the musical excerpt, but as you listen, you should notice how the beat pattern you heard previously ‘fits’ with the piece. If you have trouble hearing this, listen again to the counting example and tap a pencil on the first of each group of two; continue to tap at this rate during the playing of the musical excerpt.

Figure 3.5 Beats grouped in threes (> denotes accented beat)

Listen to music example 24: Sculthorpe’s ‘Left Bank Waltz’,counting in ‘triple metre’ (i.e. beats grouped in threes).


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Example 24 has clapped accents on the first of every group of three, followed by a short excerpt at the same tempo and the same metre as the counting you heard before. Tap with your pencil as before, but this time on the first of every group of three beats. The movement activity most often associated with triple metre is waltzing.

Figure 3.6 Beats grouped in fours (> denotes accented beat)

Listen to music example 25: ‘Waltzing Matilda’,counting in ‘quadruple metre’ (i.e. beats grouped in fours).

Example 25 has a clapped accent on the first of each group, followed by a short musical example in this ‘quadruple metre’. Some people feel that there is a secondary or subordinate accent on the third beat in a quadruple grouping, hence four is sometimes expressed as:


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If you look at a sheet of printed music, you might notice vertical lines drawn through the horizontal staff lines at regular points. These vertical divisions are called ‘bar lines’ and indicate the groupings of the beat in the piece of music. The phenomenon is known as metre, and the previously mentioned groupings are referred to as simple duple, simple triple and simple quadruple to distinguish them from compound metres (see next subsection).

Musicians refer to a group of beats, beginning with one which is accented, as a ‘bar’. In written music, a vertical line is drawn before each group to show where the metric divisions of the beat occur. Thus, a piece of music in duple metre has ‘two beats to the bar’, while one in triple metre possesses ‘three beats to the bar’ and so on.

Figure 3.7 Beat symbols with appropriate accents in place and bar lines to show metric divisions of the pulse in (a) duple metre (two in a bar), and (b) triple metre (three in a bar)

Listen to music example 23: ‘The British Grenadiers’, counting in‘duple metre’ (i.e. beats grouped in twos).

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A change of metre during a composition has a significant effect on the sound. Providing the change was intended by the composer, then this counts as an expressive component of the piece. If, on the other hand, change occurs as a result of incompetent performance, then it constitutes an error and will probably spoil the experience. Another possibility is that the performer changes the metre on purpose, in order to obtain an ear-catching, or perhaps a satirical effect.

Compound metres

Some music encourages the ear to ‘subdivide’ the beat in such a way that two interdependent yet distinguishable levels of the pulse can be discerned. This causes ambiguity in the metre. Music in ‘sextuple metre’ obviously indicates that a listener will hear a piece with the metric basis having six beats to the bar. In fact, it is quite possible that one would hear this as two bars of three-in-a-bar (triple metre), since the difference between triple and sextuple metres is very subtle and probably only discernible by an experienced listener. This distinction is another responsibility of the performer who must make it clear, without interrupting the flow of the piece, that the first of each group of six beats is accented and the fourth (which is the beginning of the second half of the bar) is not so prominent as it would be in a triple metre situation (where it would constitute the first of the next three-beat bar).

Listen to music example 26: opening theme of Brahms’s Sonata No. 1for Piano and Violin in G major (Op. 78)2, an example of ‘sextuple metre’.


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ACTIVITY 3.2

Notice the feeling of triple metre (‘waltz time’) which we get right from the opening piano chords in Example 26. It is these same chords (two in every bar) which lead the ear to hear two beats in the bar on another level of pulse organisation. As in other duple metre situations, the first of each pair is emphasised more than the second. While you listen, use figure 3.8 to help you hear this. Focus on the lower line of numbers and touch the page on each piano chord, the number 1 on the first chord, then number 2 on the second. You will then be hearing the duplicity of this metre. Listen again, focus on the upper line of numbers, think of waltzing, and touch the page three times during each of the piano’s chords. In doing this, you will be experiencing the metre of this piece on two levels, duple and triple.

Figure 3.8 ‘Sextuple metre’ as two groups of three per bar


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On one level, the upper pattern in figure 3.8 is heard, and conducted, as a duple (two-in-the-bar) metre with one beat accented, the other unaccented; however, things happen rhythmically and melodically which impose a distinct subdivision into six (two lots of three). Combining duple and triple metres in this way is referred to as a compound metre.

This can also occur in triple and quadruple metres.

Figure 3.9 Compound triple metre

Figure 3.10 Compound quadruple metre


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Asymmetric metres

Other groupings of the beat, such as 5 (quintuple metre) and 7 (septuple metre), occur in some music, for instance in European folk music. With the cross fertilisation of cultures created by travel and electronic media, these ‘asymmetric metres’ have been borrowed and used in music which is closer to home for Westerners.

Listen to music example 27:excerpt from Dave Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’.

Example 27 is an example of metre in fives (quintuple metre). The beats in this example are subdivided into groups of 3+2 (figure 3.11a), or alternatively can be grouped as 2+3 (figure 3.11b).

Figure 3.11 Quintuple metre, as:(a) 3+2 grouping,(b) 2+3 grouping


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Metre in sevens (septuple metre) can also be subdivided in a similar manner (figure 3.12a–c).

Figure 3.12 Septuple metre, as:(a) 4+3 grouping,(b) 3+4 grouping, (c) 2+2+3 grouping

For a musical example of the latter subgrouping listen to music example 28. Try to hear the grouping of the fast-moving beat as you listen.

Listen to music example 28: excerpt fromDave Brubeck’s ‘Unsquare Dance’.


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ACTIVITY 3.3

Listen to these musical examples on the accompanying audio CD and identify the metric organisation of each example as one of the following: non-metric, duple metre, triple metre, quadruple metre, quintuple metre, sextuple metre (compound duple metre) or septuple metre.


(a) track 38 ____________________

(g) track 64 ____________________

(b) track 48 ____________________

(h) track 6 ____________________

(c) track 60 ____________________

(i) track 30 ____________________

(d) track 39 ____________________

(j) track 41 ____________________

(e) track 28 ____________________

(k) track 17 ____________________

(f) track 61 ____________________

(l) track 37 ____________________

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Answers to Activities are at the end of this chapter.

When correcting your responses, please bear in mind that, in some cases, it is difficult to identify, from a purely aural perspective, the precise metre indicated by the composer in the score. There is usually some ambiguity in perception between duple and quadruple metre and between triple and sextuple metre.


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Rhythm

As we have seen, one aspect of rhythm is the metrical framework. The second, and in some ways the more obvious, manifestation of rhythm is the durations of sounds and the silences which separate them. In a song which has only one note per syllable, the rhythm of the melody is quite simply the rhythm of the poetry which is set to musical sounds in making the song.

In figure 3.13, the composer has lengthened the note which falls on the word ‘us’, and placed a shorter note on ‘re-’, but otherwise has used a note which lasts for a whole beat on each syllable. ‘Free’, the final syllable of the couplet, is the only other exception, lasting for three beats. When teaching a song such as this one, teachers sometimes reinforce the rhythm by telling children to ‘put the words in their hands’ thereby implying that they should clap the rhythm of the lyric by bringing their hands together on each syllable of the poem.

Figure 3.13 Graphic notation of the National Anthem rhythm

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Musical rhythms, then, consist of infinitely varied combinations of notes (sounds) and rests (periods of silence) of varying duration. Some rhythm patterns are as distinctive as melodies.

Listen to music example 29:clapped version of a rhythmic cliché.

Figure 3.14 Graphic notation of clapped music example 29

Syncopation

Rhythms would become predictable and uninteresting if accented notes always fell on the first beat of each bar. Stressing a normally weak beat or placing an accent on some part of the bar which does not receive metric accent has a special charm and is a musical feature which keeps listeners interested. The phenomenon is known as ‘syncopation’ and, although it exists in various musical styles, it is of particular importance in jazz, a music which has evolved as a result of the meeting of African and Western practices starting in the Southern states of North America about one hundred or so years ago. Syncopation is the key to the rhythmic vitality of most jazz styles. It is possibly a characteristic which derived from the African ‘component’ of jazz’s heritage.

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During a shameful part of the United States of America’s history, a great many Africans were forcibly transported to America to work as slaves in southern plantations. The quality of their lives in this new, white-dominated environment can scarcely be described; in most cases life became a ‘vale of tears’.

In Africa, music often expresses what could never be expressed in everyday life; the concept of talking drums and a private language reserved for a sub-culture are elements that seem to have continued right through slavery and into jazz. In pre-Civil War America, and to a certain extent after the War as well, blacks were not permitted freedom of expression, but the messages of the ‘grapevine telegraph’—underground railway—were sent from station to station in codes, some of them musical, that only initiates could understand.

(Tirro 1977, p. 32)

In order to suppress rebellious undercurrents among Negroes, whites tried to outlaw the slaves’ music and dancing. On the matter of syncopation in African music, Tirro (1977) offers the following comments:

Perhaps the most highly developed feature of African music is its rhythm, and no one seems to question its complexity. A metrical structure with regular beats is characteristic of most tribal music … Having thus established a beat, the African musician, or musicians in ensemble, proceed inevitably to the creation of syncopation … Rhythmic polyphony is often present in West African drumming, not

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only in ensemble but in solo playing as well, and in its most complex form displays the superimposition of many varied metres over the basic pulse pattern. The unusual rhythmic complexity of native African folk music has led many observers to raise this issue as a sine qua non to demonstrate that jazz must have come directly from African origins.

(Tirro 1977, p. 38)

The jazz style known as ‘Ragtime’ is one in which some syncopation is present in the upper voice and this contrasts with the steady, pulse-keeping quality of the lower sounding accompaniment.

Listen to music example 30:excerpt from Scott Joplin’s ‘Maple Leaf Rag’.

Syncopation occurs to varying degrees in a range of musical styles, but in jazz it assumes the status of a defining feature. It is achieved by several different devices.

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1 Syncopation by simply accenting a note in the bar which would not usually receive accent.

Figure 3.15 Syncopation using accents

2 Syncopation which is achieved by notes being ‘tied over’ a bar line, meaning that the metric accent of the first beat of the bar is not heard as distinctly as if a new note is attacked on it. This effect can apply in other parts of the bar too. It can mean that notes fall on ‘off-beats’.

Figure 3.16 Syncopation using ‘tied over’ notes

3 Syncopation achieved by placing a rest (silence) on the strong beat, thus depriving the ear of the expected accent.

Figure 3.17 Syncopation using rests

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(a) track 38 —triple metre (g) track 64 —duple metre

(b) track 48 —duple metre (h) track 6 —non-metric

(c) track 60 —quadruple metre (i) track 30 —quadruple metre

(d) track 39 —non-metric (j) track 41 —triple metre

(e) track 28 —septuple metre (k) track 17 —non-metric

(f) track 61 —quadruple metre (l) track 37 —triple metre

Answers to Activity 3.3

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Notes1 For historical reasons, Italian was chosen as the lingua franca for music. Since this practice is widespread, you should become accustomed to using such terms, so they will be used in this Study Guide and explained as we go.

2 Opus (Latin for ‘work’), or its abbreviation Op., is the most common method used by music editors for cataloguing and identifying the compositions of particular composers.

ReferenceTirro, F. 1977, Jazz: A History, Norton, New York.

Documents

Tutorial 3 – Sound and Silence: The Perception of Rhythm 1 Introduction Imagine a piece of music consisting of continuous, unbroken sound, its pitches