Annotation for Cooper, Grosvenor W. and Leonard B. Meyer
The Rhythmic Structure of Music
Annotation (by Jonathan E. Brooks):
- Cooper and Meyer's The Rhythmic Structure of Music was
designed as a textbook for students with a background in harmony and
counterpoint. As subsequent references from other authors indicate, the book
became the source of a revitalized interest in the study of rhythm. Their theory defines five rhythmic
groups -- iamb, anapest, trochee, dactyl, and amphibrach -- derived from
prosody, with each pattern consisting of one or two unaccented beats
grouped with one accented beat. Cooper and Meyer cite James I. Mursell,
The Psychology of Music (New York: W. W.
Norton, 1937), as developing a theoretical basis for this view. Cooper
and Meyer believe that rhythm is architectonic (hierarchical) and that
the rhythmic principles applied to derive groupings on the lowest level
can be applied recursively to all levels of the music. Thus, the rhythm
of an entire composition can, in many cases, be summarized as a single
rhythmic group. Meter
and rhythm are viewed as independent but interactive phenomena of a
complex nature, and meter is not necessarily related to the barline,
especially in twentieth-century music. Borrowing concepts from Gestalt
Psychology developed in Meyer's Emotion
and Meaning in Music, once a meter is established, it tends to be
continued
even in the presence of stimuli countering that meter. Syncopations,
suspensions and ties can therefore be experienced within the context of
a given meter. Dynamic intensification, or stress, is carefully
distinguished from accent; stress may effect the way in which rhythmic
groupings are formed, but no amount of stress can change an unaccented
beat into an accented beat. One of the strengths of this theory is its
ability to accomodate retrospective thinking with regard to accented
elements in the rhythmic grouping by allowing accent to be reinterpreted
as unaccent and vice versa. Accent, however, is treated differently on
the various architectonic levels. On the lower levels, accents tend to
be coincident with strong metric pulses, while on higher levels accent
tends to represent stability and repose. Thus, higher level groups tend
to be end accented. Cooper and Meyer provide two extended analyses of
complete pieces in
the appendix: Chopin's Prelude in Eb, Op. 24, and Beethoven's Symphony
No. 8, First Movement.
- Keywords:
