Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy

Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy
Chapter 5: Rhythm

• Meter vs. Phrasing
• Phrasing is a higher-level unit 0f perception than meter, and encompasses harmonic tension, contour, and dynamics
  
• Pulse lies at the core of meter
  
• Perception of meter is based on prime numbers
• Polyrhythms are made by playing more than one meter at a time
• Syncopation is created when beats are accentuated apart from the regular metrical pattern; often the offbeats are regular enough to anticipate
• Memory vs. Anticipation
• Memory recalls what has already happened, anticipation draws on memory to predict notes to come (usually only a beat or two in the future)
• Importance of tempo: if music moves too slowly, the relations are not close enough to be intelligible; if music moves too quickly, the brain cannot keep up with the relation modeling and has to move to shallower relations, missing the nuances of the piece
• Music needs some gradual changes in tempo; sounds unnatural without them
• Harmonic complexity vs. Metrical Complexity have an inverse relationship
• Most listeners and composers alike now opt for harmonic complexity since harmony information is parallel, while metric information is serial, thus more harmony information can be modeled in a shorter time
  
• "Memory is music's canvas"
  
• "In music, it is phrasing that reaches farthest across time to encompass the deepest relations"
• "Composers gain maximum effect by interweaving the tensions created by music's various aspects"
• "Tempo matters because the mechanics of music perception are exceedingly sensitive to the rate at which musical structures are presented to the brain"
• "Most tempo fluctuations are made intentionally. Music just doesn't sound right without them"
• "The more harmony wanders from its tonal center, the more it requires rhythmic buttressing"
  

These constitute the notes I took on my reading today.