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Notated and Heard Meter Author(s): Joel Lester Source: Perspectives of New Music, Vol. 24, No.

2 (Spring - Summer, 1986), pp. 116-128 Published by: Perspectives of New Music Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/833216 . Accessed: 08/04/2013 12:12
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NOTAIED AND HEARD METER

LL
JOEL TIFS1 ER

OFUSwho attend to concertsof contemporary music with our eyes as well as our ears(foreven the most severelyabsolutemusicdoes, afterall, have a theatrical component) have surelypuzzled on occasion as we watched the conductor'sbaton performa wondrously intricatedance: what does that metriccommotion have to do with the sounds emanatingfrom the ensemble? For while most tonal works easilyimparttheir metric hierarchy to us via continuouslyregular pulseson severallevels, regular groupingof these pulses, and frequentimpulses reinforcingthe notated meter, many a mid and late twentieth-century compositiondoes not pretendto informus of its metricstructure if indeed it has one in the sense of the metricstructure of a tonal composition.I am not referring to those unfriendlyscoresthat refuseto specifydurationsor them, although such works may well fallinto this category. only approximate RatherI am thinkingmore seriouslyof scoresI have performed,such as Babbitt's Composition for FourInstruments (1948) or Arie Da Capo(1974), which
HOSE

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specifywith considerable precisionconventionalmeters and durations.For in these scoresour currentwisdom and our knowledgeof the serialpermutations by which the durationsariselead us to assumethat the precisionof these durations is quite importantto the structureof the piece. If, as I arguein this paper, these durationsare not accuratelyperceptiblein the absence of a traditional metric hierarchy,then commonly-held conceptions of rhythm in this music need to be reassessed from the bottom up. are perhapsmost immediatelyawareof the disparitybetween Performers the metric notations of such scores and their sound, for they must learn the metricnotationsin orderto playthe piece. I rememberquite vividlythe scores of hours I spent in 1970 as a memberof the Da Capo ChamberPlayers,learnthe ensembleof Babbitt'sCompositionfor ing the violin partand then rehearsing FourInstruments. in order to play the notes at the right time, I had to Simply learnto hearmy own partas well as all the other partsin the texturein a metric for framework-the notated one. In effect, I had memorizeda silentclick-track the piece-a click-track which the out their rhythmsplayed jazzy synagainst copations and crossrhythms.Indeed, "jazzy" seems the appropriateterm to describehow I heardand played the rhythmsagainstthe silent metricgrid. I must have ratherthoroughly memorized that metric grid, for if I listened to the concerttape not long afterperforming the piece, I could easilyhearit autoin the notated meter. matically But I can also rememberwell my surprisesome months later when I listened againto the tape. In the interim, I had forgotten the measure-by-measure metric structureof the piece. And what had seemed to me in my days of a rhythmic-metric structureof crystallineclarityhad become thorfamiliarity erratic oughly opaque. Seemingly impulsesdominatedthe soundscape.Did an audience,any audience,hearonly this latterpiece and neverthe one that I had strivenso hardto perform? Now to be sure we all go through periodswhere we get to know a piece in considerabledetail followed by other periods lasting months, years, or even decades,when we do not hearthat piece. For the bulk of the tonal repertoire, when we re-encounter the work we may well have lost our detailedmemoryof it. But the experience,for me at least, has not meant that I find myselfunable to orient myself in the work. Yet with the music of Babbittand other twenwith a frequencythat distieth-centuryscoresI find that experiencerecurring turbs me. For that experienceraisesquestionsthat go to the heartof what we understand to be the rhythmic-metric structureof this music. Does the piece that I hearone waywhile performing it changeits verynaturewhen it crossesthe proscenium?Does the piece that I hearone way when I tape it change its nature when passingthrough the playback of the system?Are the metric calculations performeras unintelligibleand irrelevantto the listener as some apian dance would be in helping us locate a particular wildflowerin a meadow? Are the rhythmic-serial computationsof the theorist (or the composeras well) equally

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of NewMusic Perspectives

I must confesssome chagrinat raising these questions, to the listener? irrelevant sincefor nearlytwo decadesnow I have been lecturingto classes and preconcert audiences(mostly in connection with Da Capo ChamberPlayersconcerts)on the easeof perceiving the rhythmic-metric structure of this music.But I raisethe here because recent work on my questions rhythm and meter in tonal music leadsme to believethat the answersto these questionsmay well requirea thorough rethinkingof the natureof meterand rhythmin much twentieth-century music.

THE NATURE OFMETER

I havearguedelsewhereabout the factorsthat give riseto meterand to our perception of meter.' That discussionpertainsdirectlyto tonal music, but many pointsareextensibleto nontonalmusicaswell. I will summarizethat discussion found in the cited source, concentrathere, but without supportingarguments on to those relevant nontonal music. ing points Meteris one form of accentuation in music. Accentis an impulsethat marks off a point of initiationin music.Accentuations arisefrom manydifferent factors and occur in a virtuallyinfinite rangeof strengths.The impulse that begins a note createsan accentin relationto the sustainedportion of that note and the sustained note (orto the silencethatprecedesthe note). portionof the preceding The beginningof a new pitch aftera repeatedpitch is accentedin relationto the accent). The impulse that repetitions of the preceding pitch (pitch-change launchesa relatively duration is in accented relation to the beginningof a longer shorter duration The durational (the accent). preceding impulse that articulates the beginningof a motive or patternis accentedin relationto the interiorof that motive (thepattern-beinningaccent) . The point of a changein melodiccontouris accentedin relationto the melodic motion that continuesin one direction(the contour The beginningof a textureof greater accent). densityis accented(the texturalaccent).The point of harmonicchange is accented (the harmonic-change And so forth. accent). All of these types of accentare caused by an event occurringin the music. These types of accentresonatein us as listenersby markingoff points in time differentiatedfrom those points that do not receive such impulses. Metric accentsare somewhat differentin nature, for metric accentsnot only can but factoris present. quite frequentlydo occur at points in time where no accentual Once the meter is established,we perceivemetricaccentson silent downbeats and on beatsand beat-subdivisions that no event articulates. For meteris a psyevents chological phenomenon. It is the yardstick wherebywe locatethe musical of the piece in a gridof time-points.We perceivequite differently, for instance, harmonicchangesthat anticipatea beat, that occur on a beat, and that occur aftera beat due to suspension. The grid of the metric hierarchy, in its role of

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is akinto the frameof a painting-considerhow differently we would yardstick, the same in one frame the face is covered where by the partly perceive portrait frame,in anotherframethe faceis centered,and in a thirdframethe faceis offcenter. In tonalmusic,the accentual and commonlyreinprofileof the musiccreates forcesthe metrichierarchy for much of the piece. Accentscausedby a varietyof factorsestablish pulses-regularly recurring impulses-on severallevels. Accents on one level group the pulses on lower levels. The accentsthat most convincof levelsthat is the metrichierarchy inglygroup pulses to createthe interaction areharmonic-change accents,durational accents,and texturalaccents. in Example1. Consider,for instance,the very opening of Mozart'sFortieth The continuous eighths in the viola establishan eighth-note pulse. A quarternote pulsethatgroupsthe eighthsin pairsarises from the repeatedpitchpatternin the viola. The violin confirms this ing melody quarter-notelevel by offering notes as well as two-note slurs the quarter grouping melodiceighths. Half-note the in arise from the violapatterning aswell as the pulsesgrouping quarters pairs motivicrecurrences in the melody. The bassnotes on everydownbeatgroup the half notes in pairs.Finally,a two-measurepulse arisesfrom the bass-notepat4. All of these terning,confirmedby the paceof harmonicchangesaftermeasure levelsof pulse nest within one anotheras depictedin Example2.
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Perspectives of NewMusic

2o o o

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Alllevels arecontinually present during the firstphrases.

EXAMPLE 2

Becauseof the immediatepresenceof all these nested pulse levels, a listener buildsthe frameof the metrichierarchy so that he or she can measureall rapidly the musicalevents in relationto the multiplelevelsof the metrichierarchy. The because openingof Mozart'sFortieth projectsa rather completemetrichierarchy of the continuouspulseson so manylevels. In other tonal passages, some levels may be presentby implicationonly. The quarter-notelevel at the opening of Beethoven'sFifth,for instance,is impliedby the quadruple groupingof eighths becausegroupingsof two are the only possiblelevel that can nest within four. But actualquarternotes in any dimension barelyoccur during the entire first theme-groupof this work. And metricalambiguity,when it does arisein tonal music, virtuallyalwaysaffectsonly one or two levels of the metric hierarchy, while the higheror lower levelsremainconstant. At all levelsof the metrichierarchy, markoff equal pulsesdo not necessarily units in termsof clock time. Rather,pulsesmarkofffiunctionally equivalntunits of time. We recognizeconstantpulses even when a performer employsrubato. In a ritardando or an accelerando, we do not hearfractional portionsof a beat added to or subtracted from the successive as durations, in Example3b. being we hear the itself down so that successivelylonger or Rather, pulse slowing shorter durationsare functionallyequivalentto the preceding and following as in Example3a, and not as in pulses. In other words, we hear a ritardando 3b. In this our notational sense, Example system does not insist that durations be equallylong with a mechanical precision,but ratherthat durationsof somewhat differing are heard as functionally lengths equivalenteven while we recognize theirclock-timedifferences. All this makesthe metricyardstick a measuringsystem marvelously flexible it we can the metric and hence yet quite precise.Through appreciate position the of structural status of note or event in a while at the same time part any piece, aware of even minute alterations of the in terms of clock or metrobeing tempo nomic time. While we aremeasuringmusicalevents within a metrichierarchy, we are capableof markingfine distinctionsthat are apparently far beyond our normal perceptualcapabilities.Psychologicalstudies suggest that for isolated tones between .02 and 2 secondslong, tones differing in lengthby less than 10%

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areroutinelyheardas equivalent.2 But whateverthe valueof this findingfor isolated tones, it is clearlyirrelevantin a musical setting. Constant sixteenths, from those valuesas the at J = 120 areeasilydifferentiated eighthsor quarters metronome changesto J = 112or J = 128 (changesof less than 10%).We are awareof the changein pace, but sixteenthsremainsixteenths,eighths remain eighths, and the metricstatusof these valuesremains.
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while we listen invitesus to use it as a yardstick Indeed, the metrichierarchy to and respondto a tonal composition. As a phrasemoves towardits cadence, for instance,we expect that cadenceto arriveon a specificpoint in the metric a sixteenth hierarchy-on the downbeatof a specificmeasure.A cadencearriving beforeits notated downbeat would not greatlyalterthe clock-timelength of a on that cadence. phrase,but it would surelydisturbgreatlyour sense of arrival Thatwe not only can but quite easilydo makesuchresponsesto the musicdemonstratesour abilityto calculate quite accurately largemultiplesof short pulses; are the metric in effect do this multiindeed, the levelsof pulses that hierarchy plicationfor us.

METER IN THE MUSIC OF BABBITT

Turningfrom the tonal repertoireto more recentmusic, let us now study the accentual-metric for profile of the opening passagefrom Babbitt'sComposition FourInstrments (1948). Example4 presentsthe beginningof the clarinetsolo that opens the piece. In relation to almostanytonalpassage,this passage projectsa paucityof pulse levels.Shorterrhythmicvaluesdo not occurin extendedseries;as a result,these pulses are establishedonly intermittently.At the rhythmiclevels that would group these short pulses, those causes of metric accentuationthat are most in their occurrences powerfulin tonal musicareeitherabsentor areso irregular

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that they fail to lay out the next higher level of regularity that would itself be still to create the metric Harmonicregularities hierarchy. organizedby higher accents are irrelevant to this as are music, change pattern-beginningaccents. Durational accentsarethe only strongaccentual factorsat work here, alongwith other weakeraccentuations such as contouraccents,texturalaccents,and pitchchangeaccents.

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EXAMPLE4: BABBITT, Composition Instruments,OPENING for Four

of pulses at severallevelsin these Thus, even if there were greaterregularity weak and subjectto passages,any perceivedsense of meter would be relatively being easilyupset by conflictingaccentuations.But the rhythmicserialization that gives rise to the rhythmicvaluesin this and other passages precludessuch The resultis the absenceof a metrichierarchy in the sensethat such a regularity. is projectedby almost all tonal music. Impulses occur, markingoff hierarchy in any set of impulses, there are time-points. But without sufficientregularity too few cueswhich resonatewithin a listenerto enablehim or her to establisha metricgrid. This situationhasramifications for the perceptionof suchmusic.The sensein which events gain some of their structural meaning by occurringat particular in the metric the measurement of durations,and the sense of points hierarchy, itself differ all from their in tonal music. tempo counterparts Without the perceptualmetricgrid synchronizedwith the sounding music, the sensein which some eventsanticipate the beat, aresuspendedpast the beat, or arriveon the beat is irrelevant here. The variousimpulsesareall audible,of course, as aretheirmanifoldcombinations.But without a grid of pulses, without the powerfuleffectsof the arrival of an expectedeventon a predictable timeor of the of accentuations off the beat, there point syncopatedplacement strong

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is a sense in which the impulses are not moored to a larger system of measurement. in this piece. This rhythmicsense is akin to aspectsof the pitch structuring The variouspermutations,transpositions,and inversionsof the combinatorial on a veryfew hartrichordsthat give riseto the derivedsets, the concentration the agregates formed monic intervalswithin each section of the Composition, throughout by the combinatorialset segments in each of the four structural voices-all these are audibleand form the substanceof pitch relations.But all of the gravitational exist without the yardstick these relationships pull of a tonic all float in relationto each other. Similarly, note or sonority.The relationships of a relateto one another, but not to the yardstick the rhythmicstructurings metrichierarchy. But thereis a difference between havingpitchrelationships functioningwithout a central tonic and havingrhythmicrelationships functioningwithout a metentities. Linearand harmonic ric hierarchy. Pitchesarediscreteand identifiable intervalsmaintaintheir identitywhether or not a tonic is present.And a given of a pitch remainsthat pitch when it recurs.But in the absenceof the yardstick we may not be perceiving metrichierarchy, durationsin the samemanneraswe perceivethem in musicwith a metrichierarchy. of nonmetricrhythmicstructure-the This leadsto the second ramification manner in which durationsare perceived. As discussedabove, in music that we measure projectsa metrichierarchy lengthsof notes in termsof pulsesat their metriclevel, not in termsof durationmeasuredby clock time. I can conceiveof no model that might explainhow the mind could measuredurationswith any one to anotherwithand relatethe lengthsof these durations degreeof accuracy out a pulseas a common denominatorof two or more durations.In the absence of a metrichierarchy, of the piece, no matterhow metromanyof the durations not be in the mannerimpliedby are nomicallythey performed,may perceptible theirnotated duration. Review the opening clarinetsolo of the Composition in for FourInstruments 2 4. The durations arise from a as over the 1, 4, 3, Example proportion, depicted scorein Example 4. But in orderto perceive,say,the Db in measure2 as halfthe durationof the Ebin measure1, a listenerwould have to be maintaining a sixteenth-note pulse throughout measures1 and 2. The lone opening B hardly a sixteenthpulse. And though a listenermust be awarethat afterthe establishes the C and Db are each shorterthan their precedingnote, without Eb, ensuing advanceand apartfrom the impulses in the music) to use a six(in deciding teenth-note pulse, he or she would have no way to measureexactlyhow much shorterthese notes are. The sixteenth is the common denominatorof the Eb (foursixteenthslong) and the C (threesixteenthslong). Or considerthe opening three measuresof the Arie da Capoin Example5. The measure-long pulse is clearin measures1-2. But how could a listenerever know to subdividethat measure-long pulseinto twelfths(eighthtriplets)so that

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of NewMusic Perspectives

that listenercould understandthe durationfrom the downbeatof measure3 to the cello Ab as 5/2 of that measurepulse?For without havingdecided to subdivide the measureinto twelfths, that J-3 ,composite-rhythmdurationthat opens measure3 is simplyan unequaldivisionof the measurepulse. The followof the measure- 3,- between the celloAband the clarinet Cing subdivision be in half the duration of the measure clock time. But without may opening havingheardthat opening durationas a singlepulse with a subpulseof half the duration,I can imagineno way a listenercould measurethat relationship.
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EXAMPLE

5: BABBITT, Arie da Capo, OPENING

It mattersnot thata sensitiveperformance ofArie da Capo might delineate5/2 of a measurein measure1 by a precisecutoffof the clarinetnotes. The issuehere is whetherthereis a conceivable model that explainshow the mind can calculate a 5/udivisionof a pulsewithout havingmade the decisionto subdividethe measure-pulseinto twelfths. In the sense that a listenermight just as well decide to divide the measure-pulseinto elevenths or thirteenths, or not to divide the at allpendingsome cue from the music,the decisionto dividethe measure-pulse into twelfthsis whollyarbitrary. Therefore,in the absenceofmetmeasure-pulse ric pulses, I believe that it is a fallacyto treatperceiveddurationsaccordingto their notations. For without that arbitrary decision to subdividethe notated measures in twelfths (tripleteighths)and then considerfive twelfthsas a unit to be dividedin half,how could anylistenereverperceivethe 2:1relationship of the firsttwo durationsin measure3? I understandthat at the opening of Arie da different metricstructures arisethat operateindependently of one another. Capo And the measure-pulse that is establishedby the downbeats of measures1-3 may exist on a differentstructuralplane from that that arisesby the 2:1 relationship among the first two composite-rhythmdurationsin measure3. But that does not altermy question concerninghow a listenermight ever learnto hearsuch a simplerelationship as the 2:1 in measure3 in the absenceof a metric that allows that listener to measurethose units as units. hierarchy

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In short, the rhythmicnotationalsystemthat our centuryhasinheritedfrom the tonalera,and thatis fullycapable of depictinggraphically the perceivedeffect of an extraordinarily broadrangeof rhythmicsubtleties in tonalmusic,mayvery well be misleadingus in our attempts to understandthe rhythmic effects of much recent music. Problemsarisenot only in connection with assumptions about the perception of compositions, but also in considerationof abstract issues. Consider, for instance, David Lewin's recent study exploring why the rhythm J J. J Jd ,

when played"at a brisktempo," is processedby listenersas

J J I J J

(rit.)

(rit.)

Lewin'sstudyof this phenomenon beginsfrom the premisethat thesedurations can be represented by the numberseries2, 3, 4, 5. But in orderto perceivethe durationsas such, a listenerwould have to set up an eighth-notepulse and subdividethe firstpulse into two. But why would a listenerbe so disposedto subdivide the firstvaluein the absenceof any subdividingpulse?And thus, in the absenceof such a pulse, the listenerrealizesthat the second durationis somewhat longerthan the first,but not so long as twice as long. What other decision could the listenermakethan to heara ritardando of a unit value(c.f. Example3)? Werethe 2, 3, 4, 5 rhythmicseriesabove performed with a constanteighth-note as no listener would hear a of quarters,then ritarding pulse accompaniment, halves.Ratherthe listenerwould easilyhear2, 3, 4, 5 multiplesof eighths.That is why those oft-cited passages in workslike Stravinsky's L'Histoire du soldat are heardin termsof changingmeters,while Lewin's 2, 3, 4, 5 seriesis not. of intersectinglevels of pulses, Finally,in music without a metric hierarchy the very sense of tempo changes.That tempo refersto the speed of pulses at a metriclevelor levelsand not to the speed of actualnotes should be clear primary from slow movementswith rapidmelodicfiguresor rapidaccompaniment patterns that remainslow, and from quite fastmovements that do not necessarily maintainquicknote-valuesin termsof clock time. In musicsuch as Composition Instruments andArie da Capo one perceives forFour longerand shorterdurations. But a sustainedsense of tempo is often absent.
CONCLUDING REMARKS

None of the foregoingis intended to be or should be construedas a critiqueof the musicof Babbittor of anyother composer.The thrustof the presentdiscussion is to detail the natureof the relationshipbetween notated and perceived

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of NewMusic Perspectives

rhythms. That the rhythmic notation does not accuratelyrepresentthe peron the systemof notationwe have ceivedrhythmicstructures is morea reflection inheritedthan on the music. The performer, given the waywe havebeen trainedto count durations,must have some metricframein orderto learnto playthe durationsintended by the is composer.But whereasin tonalmusicthe metricframeused by the performer the metric in of to frame re-created the mind the listener the generally perceive music, in workslike Babbitt'sComposition for FourInstrumntsand Arie da Capo this is not the case.I defyanylistenerwho hasneverseen the scoreof eitherpiece to re-create the barring of eitherone afteras many hearings as he or she wishes. Milton Babbitthimselfhas informedme in the context of readings or rehearsals of the Compositionfor FourInstruments that the metricnotationsarefor the convenienceof the performer. alterIndeed, in those sectionsof the piece featuring nationsbetween J = 120 and J = 80, Babbittwould have preferred a notation that had not yet been used in 1948, namelyusing 3jas the denominatorof the metersignature for the J = 80 sectionsso that the entirepiece could be notated at J = 120 (Vat 120 = 3J,at 80). OlivierMessiaen,whose music surelycontrastsgreatlywith that of Babbitt, discussesa similarnotationaldilemmaconcerningmetricnotation in his TechofMy Musical niques Langutge4 writtenin the samedecadeas Babbitt'sComposition Instruments. Messiaenfound that when he composed passages with for Four the added-value of his music,he could notate and bar durationsso characteristic them as he pleasedonly so long as all partsin the ensemblewere in rhythmicor ensembleunison. As soon as other conflictingpartsentered the score, such a notation had to be abandonedin favorof an arbitrary metricnotationso that all be could coordinated in See parts performance. Example6, which presentsthe unison opening of the sixth movement from Messiaen's Quatuorpour lafin du and an earlier of the same tune in an ensemble texture in the temps appearance fourthmovement. The metrically freenotationof the sixthmovementis finefor ensembleperformance. But the violinistand cellistmust also learnthe tune in strict2/4 in orderto staywith the clarinetist in movement 4. Imaginetryingto performthe passagefrom movement 4 were it notated as in Example7. Nevit is my experience thatthe melodyis heardby listeners the samewayin ertheless, movements4 and 6-that is, the listenerprobablyhearsthe fourth-movement as in Example7. passage In conclusion,I believethat rhythmicnotationsof the Babbittcompositions and of manyother twentieth-century workscannot reliably be consideredaccuraterepresentations of the perceivedmetricstructureof this music, and cannot be consideredaccurate of the perceiveddurationsof necessarily representations individualtones. Attempts to explainor analyzethe rhythmic-metric structure of this or much other posttonalmusicon the basisof these notationsinsteadof on the basisof the perceptionof these valuesmay very well be a misdirected study. I am not sure that I can contributeat this time to an approachto these

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between issuesthat does not rely on assumingsuch a one-to-one relationship notated symbol and perceivedduration. But I am convincedthat until we as theoristscan createa model that solves this problem, we will have failedto syswith addresstemporalaspectsof this musicin a mannerthat accords tematically our hearingof the music.
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EXAMPLE 7

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of NewMusic Perspectives

NOTES

1. 2.

The Rhythmsof TonalMusic (Carbondale:Southern Illinois University Press,1986). See C. D. Creelman,"Human Discrimination of AuditoryDuration," in Society Journal of theAcoustical ofAmerica34 (1962): 582-93, and Leonard Doob, Patterning of Time(New Haven: YaleUniversityPress,1971).

3. DavidLewin, "Some Investigations into Foreground RhythmicandMetric in Browne (New Music ed. Richmond Theory: Topics, Special Patterning," York: AcademicPress,1981), pp. 101-37. The problemwasfirstproposed by JeanneBamberger. 4. The Techniques of My Musical Language,trans. John Satterfield(Paris: Alphonse Leduc, 1944), chapter7 (pp. 28-30).

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