Time, Rhythm, and Meter in Music: the Gravitational Concept

For David Epstein (Shaping Time, 1995) the organisation of time is dual in nature. This duality yields two modes of structure, a clock-like organisation (chronometric time) and an organisation that is unique to a particular experience (integral time). For him, chronometric time is periodic in nature and structured by constant factors, whereas integral time is structured by elements intrinsic to its unique situation. Epstein also suggests that the duality of the time organisation is also present in the durational aspects of music. In this manner, meter corresponds to chronometric time, and rhythm to integral time. In this paper it will be suggested that the rhythm/meter bifurcation yields dual time systems that are processed in parallel. These systems intersect on various levels, mutually affecting the forms and articulations that each assumes; this leads in turn to conflicts and resolutions of tensions between rhythm and meter. The interaction of these music parameters infer in listeners a sense of motion (kinesis): the piece departs from a point arriving at another slower or faster, in an orderly or disorderly fashion. Although not exclusively, the perception of kinesis is in great part due to the rhythmic structure of music – durations over a metrical context. Using the concept of the hierarchy in gravity, this article proposes an empirically based theoretical construction that explains the operation and function of meter within the perception of kinesis in a piece of music. Besides the importance of this issue to the overall music community, the explanation of the operation of kinesis in music is also relevant for other performance arts that interact with music, such as drama and dance.