Music - Rhythm and Metre

Overview

This refers to how composers use pulse, time signatures and rhythmic devices.

E.g. Syncopation, Dotted rhythms, Cross rhythms, Polyrhythms, Swung rhythms, Triplets

The metre of a piece tells us how the beats are grouped in the music, and is indicated by a time signature.

The terms duple, triple and quadruple refer to how many main beats there are in each bar:

You can also use the words simple and compound to indicate how the main beat is divided.

Simple: each beat divides into two - the upper number of the time signature is 2,3 or 4
Compound: each beat divides into three - the upper number of the time signature is 6,9 or 12

So for example 6/8 is compound duple metre because there are two dotted-crochet beats in each bar each of which can be divided into three quavers.

Pulse/Beat: if you are tapping your feet to or conducting music you are probably tapping out the pulse (e.g. 1 2 3 4)
Anacrusis (or upbeat): a note or group of notes that come before the first strong beat in a phrase.
Syncopation: this occurs when weak beats or off-beats are accented. Look out for syncopation in jazz, popular music and world music (AOS 3).
Dotted rhythms: these are made up of pairs of notes in the pattern long-short. The first note is dotted and the second one is a third of the dotted note's value.
Swung rhythms (jazz): like dotted rhythms but a bit lazier, so the first note is not quite so long and the last not quite so short.
Triplet: 3 notes squeezed in (evenly) in to the space of 1 (e.g. 3 quavers in to the space of 1 crotchet)
Cross rhythm: created when two conflicting rhythms occur at the same time, e.g. triplets against normal rhythms
Polyrhythm: more than two conflicting rhythms are heard at the same time.
Pause: A wait that interrupts the pulse.

Pick two of the following words to describe the metre 3/4:

What is an anacrusis?

What is the correct term to describe the effect created when two conflicting rhythms are played at the same time?