Annotation for Boyle, John David
An Exploratory Investigation of Meter Perception
Annotation (by Bill Tilghman):
- After the briefest survey of recent attention to meter as a
multi-leveled phenomenon (e.g., a level of beats and a level of
accents that group these beats), highlighting E. Gordon's
distinction between tempo (macro) beats and meter (micro) beats,
the author presents a study that attempts to determine which
level of beats -- the "traditional" beats indicated by the
conductor, or the subdivisions of these beats commonly referenced
by the terms "simple" and "compound" -- is used by musicians when
classifying a meter as duple, triple, or quadruple. In one
portion of the study, subjects were presented with computer-generated
melodies written in various meters and performed at
various tempos and "were asked to indicate whether they felt the
music to move in two's, three's, or four's." The results showed
that the subjects generally used the traditionally-defined beat,
rather than the subdivisions, as the basis for grouping into
duple, triple, or quadruple meter. The data also suggested a
tendency for subjects to consider the next-higher level of beat
at the fastest tempos, but the limited variety of tempos selected
for performance did not allow for definitive conclusions.
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