“RHYTHM AND METER COMPOSITIONAL TOOLS IN A CHOPIN’S WALTZ”

Abstract

Many musicians (whether composers, performers, or writers) see rhythm as the most fundamental and indispensable element of music. But paradoxically, the general recognition of the paramount importance of the durational parameters of music (rhythm and meter), ended up working against them: the ‘naturalness’ of rhythm and meter made theorists feel too confident that their own aesthetic preferences reflected the essence of these parameters. The result is the subordinate position attributed to rhythm and meter by traditional music theory, which seeks to understand them in relation to pitch structure. Just in Time: Towards a Theory of Rhythm and Metre1 instead proposes a purely durational approach which assesses the operation and qualities (mainly salience and kinesis) of rhythm and meter, and their interaction with other music parameters.