Metre (music)

In music, metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling) refers to regularly recurring patterns and accents such as <a href="/facts/Bar_(music)/oUxVeEQy">bars</a> and <a href="/facts/Beat_(music)/xJrxPJfS">beats</a>. Unlike <a href="/facts/Rhythm_(music)/aHAByx9M">rhythm</a>, metric onsets are not necessarily sounded, but are nevertheless implied by the performer (or performers) and expected by the listener.[not verified in body]
A variety of systems exist throughout the world for organising and playing metrical music, such as the <a href="/facts/Music_of_India/yFwovhbY">Indian system</a> of <a href="/facts/Tala_(music)/l3Y0rMDm">tala</a> and similar systems in <a href="/facts/Rhythm_in_Arabic_music/9FPztPSe">Arabic</a> and <a href="/facts/Rhythm_in_Sub-Saharan_Africa/r6UeNBDo">African music</a>.
<a href="/facts/Western_culture/rPbgAhzI">Western music</a> inherited the concept of metre from <a href="/facts/Poetry/ylGarm6p">poetry</a>, where it denotes the number of lines in a <a href="/facts/Verse_(poetry)/SxdMr3En">verse</a>, the number of syllables in each line, and the arrangement of those syllables as long or short, accented or unaccented. The first coherent system of <a href="/facts/Chord_chart/FPBJXaMv">rhythmic notation</a> in modern Western music was based on <a href="/facts/Rhythmic_mode/YQUs2Q50">rhythmic modes</a> derived from the <a href="/facts/Foot_(prosody)/bJmBpspy">basic types</a> of <a href="/facts/Meter_(poetry)/uIzxuQHA">metrical</a> unit in the <a href="/facts/Quantitative_meter/uIzxuQHA">quantitative metre</a> of <a href="/facts/Classics/CXF1ltbH">classical</a> <a href="/facts/Ancient_Greek_poetry/mAqmUXeF">ancient Greek</a> and <a href="/facts/Latin_poetry/LsxTJ0tM">Latin poetry</a>.
Later music for <a href="/facts/Renaissance_dance/e1lUaqS7">dances</a> such as the <a href="/facts/Pavane/XoRajVff">pavane</a> and <a href="/facts/Galliard/r9HeDTc5">galliard</a> consisted of <a href="/facts/Musical_phrase/bteKoAt6">musical phrases</a> to accompany a <a href="/facts/Dance_move/B24hjK2g">fixed sequence</a> of <a href="/facts/Basic_(dance_move)/AdNDGKXy">basic steps</a> with a defined tempo and <a href="/facts/Time_signature/kwQcWg1P">time signature</a>. The English word "measure", originally an exact or just amount of time, came to denote either a poetic rhythm, a bar of music, or else an entire melodic verse or dance involving sequences of notes, words, or movements that may last four, eight or sixteen bars.
Metre is related to and distinguished from <a href="/facts/Pulse_(music)/80ThGjbq">pulse</a>, <a href="/facts/Rhythm/aHAByx9M">rhythm</a> (grouping), and beats:

<blockquote>Meter is the measurement of the number of pulses between more or less regularly recurring accents. Therefore, in order for meter to exist, some of the pulses in a series must be accented—marked for consciousness—relative to others. When pulses are thus counted within a metric context, they are referred to as beats.</blockquote>

Metre (music) open-in-new

Metre (music)