Clarke - Levels of Structure in The Organization of Musical Time - 1987

This article was downloaded by: [University of Texas Libraries]
On: 04 December 2014, At: 10:47

Publisher: Routledge
Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House,
37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK
Contemporary Music Review

Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:
http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/gcmr20
Levels of structure in the organization of musical time

a
Eric F. Clarke
a
Dept. of Music , The City University , London, Englandmusician, psychologist
Published online: 24 Aug 2009.
To cite this article: Eric F. Clarke (1987) Levels of structure in the organization of musical time, Contemporary Music Review,
2:1, 211-238, DOI: 10.1080/07494468708567059
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07494468708567059
PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE
Taylor & Francis makes every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information (the “Content”) contained in the
publications on our platform. However, Taylor & Francis, our agents, and our licensors make no representations
or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness, or suitability for any purpose of the Content. Any
opinions and views expressed in this publication are the opinions and views of the authors, and are not the
views of or endorsed by Taylor & Francis. The accuracy of the Content should not be relied upon and should be
independently verified with primary sources of information. Taylor and Francis shall not be liable for any losses,
actions, claims, proceedings, demands, costs, expenses, damages, and other liabilities whatsoever or howsoever
caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with, in relation to or arising out of the use of the Content.
This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic
reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any
form to anyone is expressly forbidden. Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at http://
www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-and-conditions
Contemporary Music Review, © 1987 Harwood Academic Publishers GmbH
1987, Vol. 2 pp. 211-238 . Printed in the United Kingdom
Photocopying permitted by license only
Levels of structure in the organization

of musical time
Downloaded by [University of Texas Libraries] at 10:47 04 December 2014
Eric F. Clarke
Dept. of Music, The City University, London, England (musician, psychologist)
Music is organized hierarchically in a network of interconnected levels. Different levels

demonstrate structural properties of different types, and are notated in music with
differing degrees of explicitness. The lowest level consists of continuously variable
expressive properties, while the middle and top levels encompass discrete canonical
properties. Contemporary music has cast this division into doubt by weakening or
abandoning metrical structures and the discrete categories of duration that go with it, and
by calling into question the distinction between structure and expression. Since research
indicates that meter plays a vital role as a cognitive framework within which to organize
rhythm perception and performance, far-reaching consequences flow from contemporary
compositional developments for the perception of both structural and expressive aspects
of rhythm in contemporary music. It is argued that contemporary composers must take
account of these consequences if their music is to be comprehensible and rewarding for
listeners.
KEY WORDS structure, expression, perception, performance, rhythm, meter.
The organization of musical time into a series of structural levels is

characteristic of a large number and wide variety of theories of music
(e.g. Cooper & Meyer, 1960; Lerdahl & Jackendoff; 1983; Schachter,
1976; Yeston 1976). Despite the considerable antagonisms between
different theoretical perspectives, the issue of temporal hierarchization
is one on which virtually every current theory is in agreement. This
consensus has, however, had rather little impact on psychological
approaches to the subject. While some recognition of the significance of
levels of temporal structure and their interactions appears in some
contributions (e.g. Povel, 1981; Handel & Oshinsky, 1981), the majority
of research has either focused upon a rather ill-defined middle level of
structure, or has simply ignored the issue. The aims of this article are to
demonstrate that there are significant differences in both the musical
and psychological characteristics of these structural levels, and to
investigate some implications of rhythmic developments in the twen-
tieth century in the light of these differences.
212 Eric F.Clarke
As a preliminary it is important to establish what is meant by the term

"structural level." Stated simply, the idea is used to explain how it is that
a piece of music is more than just the string of notes written on the page.
The written symbols represent the lowest level of a hierarchical structure
in which higher levels embody the relationships between lower level
events. Higher levels are therefore more abstract, in the sense of having
no immediate material reality.
The multi-levelled pitch diagrams of Schenker's or Lerdahl &
Jackendoff's analyses (e.g. Schenker, 1932/1969; Lerdahl & Jackendoff,
1983) are diagrammatic illustrations of this principle, although it must be
understood that the "pitches" represented at higher levels in these

diagrams are more abstract than those at lower levels. Two further
features of these diagrams, and of the concept of structural levels, may
be observed. The first is that as one progresses from more immediate
levels (foreground) towards more abstract levels (background), fewer
events are represented at any particular level, due to the elimination of
events that are ornamental in function relative to those of primary
structural significance. Second, each of these more abstract and
significant events that are found at background levels operates over a
longer musical span than do events at a foreground level. Although the
general principle is that the duration occupied by an event increases
with its structural level, the relationship is not a simpler linear one.
Schenker demonstrated in his analyses that significant structural events
may sometimes follow one another with great rapidity, and at other
times be widely separated.
It is often convenient to refer to a single structural level, as if it were a
readily identifiable, self-contained set of structural relations, but in
reality the levels are far less distinct and autonomous than this suggests.
Continual cross-connection and transformation between levels blur their
boundaries, and generate a structural network that contains a complex
mixture of hierarchical and associative relationships. Reference to
apparently single structural levels must therefore be understood as a
necessary simplifying idealization. Berry (1976) and Narmour (1983)
contain more extended discussions of these and other features of
structural levels in music.
While structural levels in music are defined in terms of the principles
of musical structure, those same levels are also considered to have
psychological reality. Perceptual and cognitive processes operate at
various levels of abstraction, and can therefore, in principle, be "tuned"
to pick up information at various structural levels. This "tuning,"
however, will seldom be perfect, particularly at high structural levels
where relationships extend over considerable lengths of time, and
where limitations of memory and attention become critical. A listener
therefore inevitably perceives a set of structural relations that falls short
of the idealized set of relations that is embodied in an analysis, and
which is established solely on the basis of music structural principles.
Levels of structure in the organization of musical time 213
Levels of temporal structure

In considering the structural characteristics of time in music, we are at
once confronted by a historical issue. European art music from around
1500 developed a system of rhythmic and metric relationships of a quite
remarkable stability and coherence that has, in roughly the last forty
years, lost the domination it maintained for over four centuries. Whilst it
is essential that an understanding of temporal structure in contemporary
music be developed, the continuing influence of music from the
European tradition upon both compositional and listening attitudes is so
strong that such an attempt must start with an account of rhythmic

structure in the music of the European tonal/metric tradition.
The level of temporal structure most directly represented in the
notation of tonal/metric music specifies the relationships between single
notes, and small collections of notes. A number of temporal properties
at this level are explicitly represented, while others may be considered
emergent. Those that are explicit include: 1) the tempo, represented
either by a relatively imprecise descriptive term (e.g. Allegro molto) or
by means of a more precise metronome indication (e.g. J = 76); 2) the
relative durational proportions of individual events and silences; 3)
certain grouping relations, specified by slurs; 4) the meter, a framework
of regular accents at a number of levels, segmenting the temporal
continuum into a system of time-spans and their subdivisions (repre-
sented in the time signature, bar lines and the beaming together of
notes).
Emergent properties, which result from the interaction of a number of
parameters such as pitch, timbre and dynamic, are: 1) group bound-
aries, for which parametric continuities and discontinuities are primarily
responsible; 2) metrical structures at levels higher than the bar; 3)
patterns of directed motion, or tension and relaxation. This last
property, discussed by Schachter (1976), and by Lerdahl & Jackendoff
(1983) in connection with their prolongational reduction, is exemplified
by the "pull" towards cadences in tonal music, the forward "push" of a
strong opening phrase, or the stasis of a prolonged pedal point. While
these examples all derive from pitch properties, Schachter (1976) also
shows that purely durational properties can generate similar effects, as
in the written out accelerandi and ritardandi found in some pieces (for
instance the opening of the Allegro movement of Handel's Concerto
Grosso Op. 6 no. 7). More generally, this sense of directed motion is
generated by graduated parametric changes, and the changing balance
of continuity and discontinuity within event sequences.
At higher and lower levels of temporal structure, relations are
specified with rather less precision, and in rather different terms.
Considering lower levels first, performances of rhythmic structures
deform temporal relations in certain systematic ways and introduce
additional characteristics. The deformations result in the idealized
durational proportions of a score losing their small whole number
property and becoming continuously variable (within limits). The extent
214 Eric F.Clarke
to which these performance transformations are specified in the score

varies considerably, but even the most explicit scores do not fully
characterize every expressive feature, and are confined to specifications
that are poorly quantified. The markings are in general limited to
instructions to lengthen or shorten individual notes by unspecified
amounts, or to increase or decrease the tempo over more or less well
specified timespans.
Changes of articulation (the continuum between legato and staccato)
are also introduced in performance, affecting the relative proportions of
sound and silence occupying the time-span of an event. Since the
primary rhythmic property is the duration between event onsets, the

relative proportions of sound and silence within time-spans are not
considered to affect rhythmic properties directly. However they may
affect rhythmic properties indirectly by modifying the position or
strength of group boundaries, or by modifying the pattern of directed
motion within groups. Once again, these articulatory characteristics are
only intermittently specified in a score, and where they are specified,
indicate articulation only in terms of an unquantified sign.
The musical function of these expressive transformations is to convey
an interpretation — in other words to highlight particular structural
characteristics of the music at the expense of others. Music is always
structurally ambiguous, in the sense that it contains contradictory
structural tendencies. A performer must decide which of these is to be
brought out, and which suppressed, and find the appropriate express-
ive means to convey this understanding. In some circumstances the aim
may be to reconcile the contradictory properties of the music, and in
others to highlight them, but in either case the general principle is that
individual expressive gestures intensify the latent structures of a notated
musical source.
Lastly, there are higher levels of temporal structure, often referred to
as form (rather than rhythm). Metrical structures undoubtedly extend
beyond the level of single bars, but while some authors (e.g. Cooper &
Meyer, 1960) have put no limit on the level to which they take such
structures, it has been suggested more recently (e.g. Longuet-Higgins &
Lee, 1982; Lerdahl & Jackendoff, 1983) that a comparatively low upper
limit should be established (at around the 4 to 8 bar phrase level,
depending on tempo, structural complexity, etc.) The basis for this
suggestion is that it is unrealistic to assume that listeners (or performers)
continue to be aware of a regular and all-inclusive pattern of relative
strength and weakness between events that are widely separated in the
music, or that the strictly hierarchical metrical framework can extend to
such a depth of embedding.
If metrical structures do not extend to very high levels, there is no
doubt that grouping structures do. Large-scale boundaries can be
identified up to the highest levels of musical organization, established
by major points of discontinuity, or by high level repetitions or
parallelisms. These formal divisions, which constitute the highest level
of temporal structure in music, demonstrate the same mixture of explicit
and emergent properties observed with intermediate level temporal

structures. On the one hand there are explicit markers such as double-
bar lines, extended pauses, cadenzas, tempo changes, and so on, while
on the other hand a large formal division may only become apparent on
the basis of long term tonal or thematic relations that have no obvious
surface representation.
In summary, tonal music demonstrates greatest precision in the
specification of temporal structures at a level extending from single
notes up to collections of a few notes, or three or four bars. Thereafter,
higher levels of structure continue to manipulate the same temporal
properties (metrical structures, group boundaries, durational propor-

tions, and directed motion within groups), but with considerably more
emphasis on the articulation of group boundaries than on the other
properties. By contrast, lower levels of temporal structure (the express-
ive transformation of individual notes and note sequences in perform-
ance) are continuously variable, and are specified in a score very
sparingly by means of essentially unquantified relational signs. There is
thus a discontinuity in the nature of temporal structure at the divide
between continuously variable expressive properties (i.e. performance
features) and discrete canonical properties (i.e. structures that are neutral
with respect to performance).
Temporal properties in new music

European and American art music since the second world war offers a
variety of challenges to the characterization of temporal structure in
music developed in the previous section. The most significant challenge
is the erosion or destruction of the special characteristics of the middle
level of rhythmic structure in tonal/metric music. The outstanding
property of this level is the way in which individual notes are related to
one another as small integer divisions of constant repeating time units
(beats) at a number of levels. This establishes a system of rhythmic
relations organized around a set of discrete categories of duration,
formed by adding together beat fractions. The corresponding level of
time structure in much post-war music (for instance music by Stock-
hausen, Boulez, Berio, Ligeti, Xenakis, Lutoslawski) still notates
individual notes as discrete entities, but in many cases does not
represent these individual events as discrete categories of duration,
related to one another as a set of beat fractions in a metrical framework.
It is common for the notation to have neither time signature nor bar-
lines, and for the beaming together of notes to represent grouping
structure rather than metrical relations. Durations may be specified by
means of traditional notational categories (semiquaver}, quaver J»,
crotchet J., minim J, etc.), but they frequently do not add together into
constant units, and furthermore may be combined with some form of
proportional notation. Examples are Stockhausen's Klavierstuck X, parts
of Lutostawski's 3rd Symphony, Tempi Concertati by Berio, or Continuum
Figure 1 Excerpt from Tempi Concertati by Berio. Reprinted by kind permission of Universal Edition (London) Ltd.
® Universal Edition.
by Ligeti (see Figure 1). (In proportional notation the horizontal distance
between events on the stave is made proportional to their separation in
time.) The effect of proportional notation is to allow the temporal
structure of a piece to be formed out of continuously variable units
rather than discrete categories, so that the separation of expressive
timing properties from canonical properties, based on the distinction
between discrete categories and continuous variability, is effectively
destroyed. The perceptual consequences of these structural develop-
ments will be considered in the final section of this paper.
Pierre Boulez has drawn attention to the distinction between con-
tinuously variable and discrete structures in his terms "smooth" and

"striated" time (Boulez 1971, p. 88). He regards the significant contrast
between these two to be the fact that while the former is "filled without
counting" the latter is "filled with counting," and that only striated time
has the properties of speed, acceleration and deceleration, identified in
the relationship between pulsations (or "striations") and clock time.
Smooth time has only density, measurable as the "statistical number of
events which take place during a chronometric global time-span"
(Boulez 1971, p. 88-89).
In a similar way, Stockhausen characterizes parts of Kontakte as going
"so fast that you don't hear individual sounds anymore, the whole
structure becomes statistical." (Cott, 1974, p. 176). He criticizes the work
of Xenakis and Ligeti for making use of a constant metrical structure
within which irregular rhythms are arbitrarily placed. As a result the
conductor in such pieces functions purely as a mechanical time-keeper,
whose movements coincide arbitrarily with the rhythmic structures of
the music. Stockhausen claims that the result is that "No tempo feeling
comes u p . . . Densities, yes. There are densities that change, but
there's no feeling for tempo." (Cott, 1974, p. 177).
These comments testify to an increased interest in the manipulation of
tempo in contemporary music. Not only can tempo changes be used as a
structuring device (and the works of Berg and Webern are clear
forerunners of this development), but they can also be combined with
conventional rhythmic notation to produce an extended range of
complex proportions. Boulez (1971) comments that when notated in a
conventional manner, very complex durational proportions may become
impossible to perform. By combining tempo changes with comparative-
ly simple notation, new possibilities are facilitated. As Boulez has put it,
".. . from the dialectic between pulsation and pace, one can in effect
regain all the possibilities of proportions . . . " (Boulez, 1971, p. 92).
The limitations on a performer's ability to read complex notation
accurately, to move very rapidly over large distances on an instrument,
or to control breathing in vocal and wind music have also been used as
positive structural characteristics in contemporary music. Stockhausen
has on occasion intentionally used highly complex rhythmic notation to
produce uncertain and hesitant rhythmic effects. The performance
difficulties associated with decoding a complex notation, traversing
large distances on an instrument, or the need to re-take breath all lead to
218 Eric F. Clarke
a certain indeterminacy in the precise temporal location of events.

Stockhausen (1959/1975) refers to this kind of organization as "field
time," and indicates that it may be used as a structural method at a
variety of hierarchical levels, and with a variety of techniques regulating
the temporal extension of the time-fields within which events occur.
Examples of this are Stockhausen's Zeitmasse, and a number of works by
Ferneyhough, such as Time and Motion Study II for solo cello, where the
idea is pushed to its limit.
Again a consequence of this approach is the erosion of the distinction
between structure and expression. The introduction of improvised
elements into compositional structure, such as the controlled or limited

improvisation used in many post-war compositions, takes this one stage
further. Such passages commonly indicate either the exact pitches, or
their rough outline, and may specify a rhythmic "manner" (e.g. regular
or irregular) or the approximate density of events. However the total
number of events, their proportional relations, the overall duration of a
passage, or the order in which a number of sections should be played,
are frequently left unspecified. Within such passages the distinction
between rhythmic/metric structures and their expressive transformation
can no longer be made, since a large part of the structure is left to the
individual performer on a particular occasion to determine.
The final post-war, development with even more far-reaching con-
sequences for the distinction between structure and expression is the
emergence of electro-acoustic music. The techniques of musique concrete
and digital or analog synthesis allow a degree of continuously variable
temporal control that is beyond the capacities of any human performer,
and need take no account of human, or conventional instrumental
limitations. Furthermore, since in its "purest" form an electro-acoustic
performance involves either the playback of a pre-recorded tape, or the
running of a computer program, it is quite obviously inappropriate to
make the same distinction between structure and performance that
conventional, notated, instrumental music requires.
These significant changes in the nature of temporal structures at the
most detailed and intermediate levels are less apparent in large-scale
structures. As in tonal/metric music, high level structures in contempor-
ary music may be indicated with explicit notational devices in a score, or
may arise as emergent properties of a piece, the balance of explicitness
being as much an aspect of a composer's "notational personality" as a
reflection of musical structure. Explicit representations of higher level
temporal structures may make use of traditional notational devices, such
as double lines, pauses, and so on, or may employ new notations, but in
either case their function is essentially identical to that found in tonal/
metric music.
As far as emergent properties are concerned, the absence of any
generally shared system of pitch relations in post-war music means that
patterns of stability and instability, or tension and release, upon which
phrase structures were based in the tonal period, are rather more
difficult to identify unambiguously. Furthermore, while grouping and
meter are separable aspects of a rhythmic structure, grouping structures

at medium and high levels in tonal/metric music frequently reflect the
influence of metrical principles in adhering to symmetrical and binary
(or less often ternary) forms. While the hegemony of the four-bar
phrase, 16-bar period, 32-bar section, and so on in Classical music (and
to a lesser extent Romantic music) may have been overstated, the
generality and strength of these structures as underlying models is not
to be underestimated. With the weakening or disappearance of metrical
structures in contemporary music, this underlying regularizing tenden-
cy no longer exists. When combined with the absence of systematic
tonal indicators, this has the consequence that emergent grouping

structures may depend rather more heavily on immediate parametric
continuities and discontinuities as boundary indicators than is the case
in tonal/metric music. Sudden changes in harmonic density, rate of
activity, pitch height, timbre, dynamic, or spatial location are now
primary boundary indicators, as are motivic repetitions and parallel-
isms. In tonal music these attributes can be held in tension with
harmonic, tonal and metrical properties, generating ambiguous bound-
ary markers such as are formed at false recapitulations, and interrupted
or imperfect cadences. Figure 2, from the second movement of
Beethoven's "Waldstein" sonata (op. 53) illustrates this principle: a
dramatic change in the rate of activity from bar 25 to 26 does not create a
significant boundary because of harmonic continuity, whereas the
harmonic change in bar 27 does create a low level boundary despite
textural continuity. It may be rather more difficult to produce equivalent
effects in contemporary music without the aid of the same kinds
overlearned schemes of pitch and metre. Similarly, an important
characteristic of tonality is the possibility of articulating long-term
patterns of stability and instability by means of carefully controlled
hierarchical relationships. This allows patterns of directed movement to
be generated over long time-spans, and without a pitch system of
equivalent hierarchical complexity, it is difficult to generate analogous
effects. A consequence of this is that large-scale temporal structures in
contemporary music may demonstrate a tendency to be rather static.
In summary, the temporal structure of contemporary music is
significantly different from tonal/metric music in the following respects.
By weakening or abandoning metrical structures, it erodes the distinc-
tion between a level of structure employing discrete categories of
duration, and a lower level of continuously variable expressive time
structures. In music with an improvised component, and more particu-
larly in electro-acoustic music, this merging of levels is taken further by
questioning the distinction between structure and performance. At
higher levels of temporal structure such radical differences between
traditional and contemporary music are less evident. Nonetheless, the
absence of both tonality and metre exerts a definite influence on the
nature of group boundaries, the regularity of group durations, and the
sense of directed motion within and between groups. In aesthetic terms,
these developments have in some cases (e.g. Cage, Stockhausen,
Attacca 'subito il Rondo:
Figure 2 Bars 25 - 28 of the second movement of Beethoven's "Waldstein" sonata (Op. 53).
Feldman, Wolff) been associated with a move away from temporal

structures characterized by organic unity and teleology. Indeterminacy,
cyclical structures, and open structures have been adopted as alterna-
tives on the basis of both their different structural possibilities, and their
aesthetic character. The tendency is by no means general, however:
unified and teleological structures are also formed in works that employ
many of the same contemporary techniques (e.g. many of the works of
Boulez, Berio, Lutosiawski, Stockhausen).
Perceptual representations for time structures

Intermediate level representations: Rhythm
Just as theories of rhythmic structure in music have primarily taken pre-

twentieth century music as their model, so too has psychological
research been pre-eminently directed towards rhythmic structures in a
traditional metric mold. And just as the intermediate level of time
structure is the primary focus of rhythmic theory, so too is it the main
object of psychological study.
The principal findings of this research are as follows. First there is a
strong emphasis on the involvement of meter in the perceptual
representation of rhythmic structures. Steedman (1977), Longuet-
Higgins (1979), Handel & Oshinsky (1981) and Lerdahl & Jackendoff
(1983) all demonstrate that meter is involved in the perceptual
representation of musical rhythm from a variety of perceptual, perform-
ance and theoretical perspectives. Not only is meter in its own right one
of the most memorable aspects of a piece of music (Sloboda & Parker,
1985), independent of the relative note values contained within it, but it
also plays a crucial role in determining the stability of detailed rhythmic
groups. Povel (1981) showed that only rhythmic structures that could be
accommodated to a metrical framework were correctly reproduced, and
studies of piano playing have shown the same to be true of more musical
tasks with skilled performers (Clarke, 1984). Furthermore, evidence that
rhythm is internally represented in a categorical fashion (Gabrielsson,
personal communication; Clarke, 1984) shows that the category bound-
aries are related to musical context, moving so as to facilitate metrically
conformant interpretations of ambiguous rhythmic groups.
The representational model that emerges from a variety of studies has
at its core a framework of beat markers, indicating the position of
accents, the mode of subdivision of metrical time-spans, and the
integration of metrical time-spans into higher level units. Around this
are arranged specifications of both the position of group boundaries and
the relative durations of individual notes. The group boundaries in this
representation correspond to a mixture of explicitly marked boundaries
in the score (the end-points of slurs) and emergent boundaries. That the
former type is involved has so far not been experimentally demons-
trated, but is powerfully suggested by the usual practice of performers
222 Eric F.Clarke
indicating interpretative changes with slurs in the notation. Even if such

marks function only as mnemonic devices, they illustrate a simple
correspondence between a notational mark and a perceptual scheme.
The influence of emergent group boundaries in the perceptual
representation has been demonstrated. Clarke (1982) showed that in
response to a tempo change, pianists spontaneously reorganized the
group structure of a piece of music, the new organization nonetheless
still conforming to formal constraints in the music. These changes can be
regarded as the re-interpretation of the music's emergent grouping
properties under the influence of a tempo change.
As far as individual note proportions are concerned, there is some

evidence that rather than being expressed in terms of exact ratios, they
are simply encoded as distinctions between even and uneven time-span
divisions, with "long" and "short" components marked in the case of
uneven divisions (Clarke, 1985). When this specification is combined
with the information about metrical time-span relations contained
within the metrical framework, the rhythmic structure of the original
notated or performed source is recaptured. Thus the representation
consists of three components: metrical information, group boundary
specifications, and the relative durations of events expressed as simple
inequalities. This model is illustrated in Figure 3. Analysis shows that
when such a representation is the basis for a performance (rather than
the end-product of perception), direct timing from some sort of internal
clock normally takes place not at the level of individual notes, but at the
level of metrical time-spans. Subdivisions of these time-spans are
achieved in a hierarchically subordinate and untimed way, by means of
procedures which specify abstract movement patterns that take on a
particular temporal profile in the course of their execution. These
procedural specifications may be said, therefore, to contain not temporal
specifications, but temporal commitments that take on real-time values
through the dynamics of an activated muscle-system.
The perceptual representation of tempo is a matter that remains rather
unexplored, but it is evident that its absolute nature makes reference to
some sort of internal clock unavoidable. We may for the present assume
that this is the same dock as that involved in making a perceptual
judgement of the equality or inequality of time-spans, or in giving real-
time values to metrical units in rhythmic performance. Although little is
known about the precise nature of this mechanism, a number of authors
have demonstrated with performance data that a person's representa-
tion of tempo, or even a pattern of different tempi, can be remarkably
stable (e.g. Seashore, 1938/1967; Shaffer, 1981; Clynes & Walker, 1982).
This suggests that if tempo changes, or a single tempo, are established
by means of reference to a dock with a variable rate, the prograrnming of
that rate is a very predse affair.
If the internal clock controlling tempo and the clock controlling the
judgment and execution of metrical time-spans are one and the same, an
interesting consequence follows. Since this clock is oriented towards
metrical time-spans rather than individual notes, it suggests that tempo
I = / = 1,000 MSEC
BEAT MARKERS
E E E E E L l l E E E E LT PROCEDURES
O O
I I METRE ( 3 LEVELS)
JJJJ]J
500 500 500 2,000 500 500 2,000
NOTATION
500 503 500 500 IDEALISED TIMING (MSEC.)
Figure 3 A model for the internal representation of rhythmic sequences,

showing the operation of a system of procedures and beat markers with a multi-
levelled metrical framework. In the figure E = "equal" or "even," and L =
"long." The conventional notation and canonical timing values are shown for
the illustrative passage (Beethoven Sonata op. 49, no. 1, 1st movement,
opening).
is judged (both perceptually and in performance) by the rate of beats

rather than the rate of notes. This is in accordance with general
experience, since we are able to judge a highly embellished slow
movement to be slow despite the rapidity of individual notes, presum-
ably on the basis of its slow meter.
Finally, individual accents that are non-metrical in origin are indicated
in the rhythmic representation by markers attached to the appropriate
note specification. These accents may correspond to either the pheno-
menal or structural accents identified by Lerdahl & Jackendoff (1983),
the former being the result of local intensifications (e.g. dynamic
increase, high register, high density, long duration, etc.), whereas the
latter are the product of longer term processes of tension and relaxation
(e.g. cadences, structural beginnings, etc.). These non-metrical accents
224 Eric F.Clarke
are important as contributors to the sense of directed motion in rhythm.

In "summary, the representation of rhythm at this intermediate level of
structure is organized around two basic units: a composite of grouping,
metrical, procedural and accent information; and an internal .clock. It
illustrates the central function of meter as a framework around which
individual notes are organized, and through which they gain an
appropriate durational quantification.
Low level representation: Expression

The perceptual representations discussed up to this point account for

our sensitivity to the simple proportional properties of rhythmic
structures. But we are also responsive to the fine details of event timing,
of a more continuously variable sort, that are normally referred to as
expressive properties. Our sensitivity to these features as listeners is
indicated by a number of convergent sources of information. First there
is the psychophysical evidence of our sensitivity in making duration
judgments. Kristofferson (1980) showed that even in conditions of no
context, duration judgments can be very accurate (a difference threshold
of around 8%), and we can expect them to become sharper with
appropriate context. Second, Sloboda (1983) showed that listeners are
able to distinguish between alternative interpretations of a metrically
ambiguous sequence on the basis of a mixture of performance cues
(dynamic intensification, articulation, timing). The experiment did not
allow an estimation of the separate contributions of the three para-
meters, but the pattern of data suggested that timing was important.
Sundberg, Fryden & Askenfelt (1983) and Bengtsson & Gabrielsson
(1983) have demonstrated with recorded examples that synthesized
performance can be musically enhanced (or made more realistic) by
altering the timing properties by amounts that are equivalent to those
found in performance studies. Finally there is abundant observational
evidence that musicians spend considerable amounts of time comment-
ing on and refining their own and each others' "interpretation," one
component of which is detailed timing. The comments made in
masterclasses may be dressed up in the metaphors of instrumental
pedagogy, but there is no doubt that what is being referred to is timing
among other expressive parameters.
The evidence for fine timing control in performance is rather more
definite. A whole range of work (Seashore 1938/1967; Shaffer 1981;
Bengtsson & Gabrielsson 1983; Sloboda 1983; Clarke 1985;) has shown
that performers make use of variations in event timing in a controlled
and highly reproducible manner. These modifications are continuously
variable, may involve changes of the order of only 30 msec, in event
timing, and have been referred to as expressive, since their primary
function appears to be to express or convey a particular interpretation.
This level of timing control is not an optional luxury that performers can
choose to make use of or not: Seashore demonstrated that even when
asked to play metronomically, a pianist still shows consistent timing

modifications, which are essentially a scaled-down version of the
pattern observed in unconstrained playing. Furthermore, expressive
timing is a feature even of sight-read performances: Shaffer (1981)
demonstrated highly consistent timing profiles in a performance of a
Bach fugue that the performer had probably never seen before. This
strongly suggests that expressive timing is the inevitable consequence of
interpreting music, and that an interpretation, albeit sometimes of a
rather rudimentary sort, is necessary to be able to play music at all.
These observations have resulted in a model for expressive timing in
which timing values are related to a structural interpretation of the

music by means of a set of generative rules. The idea is that in
performance, expressive timing properties are generated during the
performance from the player's understanding of the musical structure.
This not only accounts for the expressive nature of sight-read perform-
ances, but also explains how an expressive profile can be preserved
across a number of performances by the same individual without
requiring a prodigious memory capacity. The expressive profiles that are
found can be described with a simple set of generative rules (see Clarke,
1984; Todd, 1985). These rules take structural information as their input
and generate expressive timing specifications as their output. As an
example, one such rule is sensitive to group boundaries at a variety of
levels of structure, and specifies a graduated tempo decrease towards
the group boundary. The amount of tempo decrease is related to the
structural importance of the group boundary, more significant bound-
aries being marked by more emphatic tempo effects (for a more formal
discussion see Todd, 1985). A second generative rule specifies that
individual notes of particular structural importance may be lengthened
(agogic accentuation), and a third specifies that notes of structural
importance may be delayed. These and the other generative rules of
expression are simple in themselves but produce subtle effects by means
of interactions between the rules, and between the rules and the
concurrent musical structure. As already noted, expressive timing
effects are found at all levels of structure, from the individual note up to
whole phrases or sections. At higher levels, the effects appear to be
produced by continuous variations, or more long-lasting modifications,
of the internal clock rate. At the most detailed level, the expressive
transformation of individual notes is thought to be achieved by a system
of variable markers attached to the procedural specification that was
described earlier. Figure 4 illustrates the model using the same sequence
as Figure 3.
As far as the perceptual nature of these expressive timing features is
concerned, it seems that listeners well-versed in the appropriate musical
idiom have no difficulty distinguishing between the expressive transfor-
mations to which a rhythmic structure has been subjected and the
underlying canonical specification. This is presumably due to the use of
a set of categorical constraints which limit the canonical representation to
whole-number durational proportions made out of multiples of 1, 2 and
226 Eric F.Clarke
I = i = 1,000 MSEC
i L A
1 BEAT MARKERS
PROCEDURES
E +E EE +EL E EEEL
PROCEDURAL MODIFICATION
+
0 o
METRE VARIED BY
I I I I PROGRAMMABLE CLOCK
NOTATION
500 320 2,100 530 350 2,300 EXPRESSIVE TIMING (MSEC.)

400 340 420 380
Figure 4 Illustration of the operation of expressive timing modifiers at two

levels: 1) modifiers of the procedural specifications; 2) programmed alterations
of the rate of the clock that times beat durations. An impression of the expressive
riming values generated is given at the bottom of the figure. The figure is an
expressive version of the same sequence illustrated in Figure 3.
3, and then designate any deviations from these simple proportions as

expressive effects (or errors). The same generative rules as are used by
performers are then used (in reverse) to understand the structural
function of these expressive gestures. Because of the dynamic nature of
musical performances, and the logic of expression, listeners can
anticipate the future course of the expressive profile, including depar-
tures from strict timing. Using a concept of expressive flow, rather like
Gibson's (1966) idea of optic flow, we can see that the evolving structure
of the timing information may thus help to specify important features of
the musical structure. A group boundary, for example, may be indicated
as much by a progressive decrease in tempo (rallentando) followed by a
return to the original tempo, as by strictly structural factors such as
harmonic change or melodic repetition.
Finally, there is the sense of directed motion, or tension and
A
t BEAT MARKERS
E E E E ©E E E PROCEDURES WITH ACCENT

METRE
DIRECTED MOTION
Figure 5 A schematic illustration of the sense of directed motion in a rhythmic

sequence, generated from the interaction of grouping structure (the whole
sequence being one group) with accent (represented by a ringed element, which
in this case coincides with a metrical accent).
relaxation, referred to earlier, which occupies a somewhat ambiguous

position with regard to the distinction between expressive (low level)
and canonical (intermediate and high level) temporal structure. If it is
regarded as part of the canonical structure then it does not require an
independent internal representation, but simply arises out of the
interaction of durational and accentual properties that are already
represented. Accents of any of the three types (phenomenal, structural
and metrical) identified by Lerdahl & Jackendoff (1983) are marked in
the representation of rhythmic structures as described above, and serve
as focal points towards and away from which durations contained
within the same rhythmic group are directed. Figure 5 illustrates this
idea, using the representational model discussed above. Thus, since the
accents themselves are the product of a variety of parameters (harmonic,
registral, durational, timbral, dynamic, etc.), directed motion in rhythm
emerges as an inherently interparametric property.
This directed motion can also arise as the product of an interaction
between structural and expressive properties (Clarke, 1984). By intro-
ducing graduated changes in an expressive parameter (timing, dynamic,
articulation, vibrato, etc.), a performer can impose a sense of direction
on a rhythmic structure which in a dead-pan performance might either
be static, or possess some other directed characteristic. Figure 6 is an
illustration of the effect, representing graduated expressive changes
228 Eric F.Clarke
JJJJJJJJJ NOTES
EXPRESSIVE CHANGE
(TIMING, DYNAMIC, ETC.)
DIRECTED MOTION
Figure 6 A schematic illustration of the sense of directed motion in a rhythmic

sequence, generated from expressive change. The expressive change, though
represented by conventional dynamic markings, may be of any sort: timing,
dynamic, articulation, vibrato, timbral change, etc.
with "crescendo" and "decrescendo" marks, and directed motion with

arrows. The principle is no different from the interaction between
structural parameters, but in this case involves an interaction between
structure and expression.
High level representation: Form

Discussion of the abstract properties of musical time showed that there
is no clearcut distinction between middle and high level structures.
Rhythmic groups of greater duration illustrate the same types of
property (meter, grouping, durational proportions, etc.), though the
balance of their significance may change. Nonetheless, our experience of
large-scale temporal structures in music does seem to be rather different
from that of note-to-note and small group relations.
In searching for a psychological explanation for this difference, one
possibility is that larger-scale structures (referred to from here on as
form) are distinguished from smaller-scale structures (rhythms) on the
basis of the distinction between perception and memory. A rhythmic
structure is one that can be perceived in an immediate fashion, whereas
a form is, by virtue of its overall duration, a structure that is constructed
out of perceptual and memory information. What divides one from the
other is the upper limit of the perceptual present (Michon, 1978) — that
duration within which a unified package of perceptual information is
apprehended.
In order to elaborate this idea, let us consider some basic features of
the distinction between perception and memory. Perception can be
characterized as experience that is initiated by sensory information,
which may originate inside or outside the body. Our perceptions are
not, however, instantaneous and atomistic, but are extended in time
and more or less continuous. Perception is a process which goes

through phases of greater or lesser continuity, but which only
encounters a definite boundary when we pass between consciousness
and unconsciousness. On the other hand, perception does not flow in
an entirely homogeneous fashion: it segments experience into a
succession of units whose relative autonomy is a function of the
coherence of the perceptual information and the perceptual strategy of
the observer. Each of these durational segments is a "perceptual
present," and has the property that until it is a complete and bounded
segment, the information within it continues to be active and available.
A model such as this is required if we are to explain how we hear speech

or music in terms of relatively extended significant units, rather than as
atomistic elements strung together with the constructions of memory. In
short, perception is a process that creates a succession of organized
units, of variable duration, whose entire contents are active and open to
higher level structuring. Each such unit is a perceptual present.
Before considering the factors that determine where the boundaries
between perceptual presents are drawn, let us briefly consider memory.
The primary characteristic of memory, whether long-term, short-term,
or viewed in a unified multi-levelled fashion, is that a retrieval process is
involved at some stage. In other words, memory involves the transfer of
information from a state of relatively inactive storage (prior to retrieval)
to a state of active operation. Thus only a small part of our memory
contents is active at any time, and is connected to other memories or to
the contents of current perception by means of a constructive process.
This can be illustrated with two time perception examples. If the way in
which we judge the duration between the successive sounds of a clock
striking the hour is contrasted with the way in which we judge the
duration between the last strike of the hour and the first of the following
quarter-hour, the former has a far more immediate quality to it than the
latter. The former is truly perceptual, and involves little in the way of
construction (except perhaps for the conversion of the percept into
conventional time units); it is analogous to the experience of rhythm.
The latter, which is heavily dependent on memory processes, is a rather
more painstaking and constructive kind of judgment, and is analogous
to the experience of a formal relationship.
With this difference between perceptual and memory processes in
mind, we can consider the factors which influence both the duration of
the perceptual present, and the point at which the boundary between
one present and the next is drawn. In a review of this issue, Michon
(1978) has rightly stressed the strong connection between the processing
of temporal patterns and the structure of the perceptual present. It has
been known for some time that the length of the perceptual present is
variable (e.g. Fraisse, 1963), and is determined primarily by the pattern
characteristics of the stimulus material being attended to. The upper
limit to this variability is a purely temporal constraint (around 10
seconds), but within that limit the boundaries of the perceptual present
are established according to structural criteria. Those criteria can be of an
230 Eric F.Clarke
immediate, local sort, such as a change in the intensity, rapidity or

quality of the perceptual information, or of a more abstract, syntactical
nature, such as a change in harmonic function.
In a musical domain, these criteria are in essence contained within the
grouping preference rules formulated by Lerdahl & Jackendoff (1983).
The rules are a mixture of Gestalt-like principles that are oriented
towards low-level note-to-note transitions, and more abstract principles
such as symmetry, parallelism and harmonic stability. In one respect,
however, Lerdahl & Jackendoff's rules differ from the principles of the
perceptual present. Their rules give rise to a hierarchical structure of
groups, extending from units of only two or three notes in extent up to

whole sections or movements. The perceptual present, by contrast, does
not appear to possess a hierarchical property of the same sort. Lerdahl &
Jackendoff's rules identify units that are smaller than those normally
constituting perceptual presents, and also combine those units in a
recursive manner that has no counterpart for the perceptual present.
Rather, the perceptual present arises at a single level and is subject to a
network Of hierarchical relations, based on memory processes, which
are completely different in nature from the structure of connections
within the perceptual present. Similarly, at a detailed level hierarchical
relations between low-level structures can be identified within the
perceptual present, but these smaller sub-units are not themselves
perceptual presents. Just as there is a privileged level of meter (the
"tactus") which corresponds to the rate at which one might tap one's
foot, or move one's arm as a conductor (Fraisse's "spontaneous tempo";
1982), so also might there be a particularly salient level of grouping
structure in music which corresponds to the level at which the
perceptual present is formed. Within groups at this level, relationships
between events have dynamic properties (i.e. are musical processes),
while relationships between such groups are more static and construc-
tive (i.e. are formal in nature). The distinction between perception and
memory can thus be related to that between process and form (cf.
Meyer, 1973).
In tonal/metric music, the level at which form predominates over
process as the main temporal organizing principle corresponds to a shift
away from immediate perceptual characteristics (such as dynamic,
register, timbre, density, etc.) towards more abstract properties (such as
key, cadence, melodic repetition, tonal centre, etc.) as the determiners
of group boundaries and inter-group relations. These more abstract
structuring principles necessarily rely upon a listener being reasonably
well-versed in the musical idiom, which is only likely to be the case
when a body of shared compositional procedures is identifiable. The
enormous diversity of current compositional methods suggests that the
stylistic familiarity associated with the period of "common practice" is
not true of contemporary music. Under these circumstances the more
immediate auditory properties of the music have come to assume an
increased formal significance. Absolute pitch level, timbre, density and
rate of activity are all parameters of comparatively little significance in
tonal/metric music which play a very considerable role in the larger-scale

time structure of contemporary music.
Turning now from factors contributing to the establishment of group
boundaries, let us consider the durational properties of such segments.
Two models for the perception of duration have been proposed, one
based on the idea of an internal clock (e.g. Treisman, 1963), and the
other on the idea that perceived duration is related to the information
content of the elapsed interval (e.g. Ornstein, 1969). Internal clock
models suggest that some sort of biological pacemaker generates pulses,
which are counted by a central mechanism that stores the count for
comparison with other time intervals. The variability of time judgments

arises from fluctuations in the pacemaker and error associated with the
counting mechanism. By contrast, information processing models
propose that the duration of an interval is constructed from the amount
of stored information between the boundary markers of the interval in
question. The amount of information is a function of both the objective
complexity of the stimulus, and the processing strategy adopted by the
observer. While the two models have been suggested as alternatives,
there is no reason why the two mechanisms cannot operate together,
since experimental evidence seems to support aspects of both. A
number of authors (e.g. Thomas & Cantor, 1978; Gomez & Robertson,
1979) have indicated the way in which the two types of process might be
coordinated, the observer paying more attention to the output of the
information processor when the perceptual context or activity is
engaging, and paying more attention to the output of the clock under
conditions of incomprehension or boredom.
Music theory has generally adopted a view of large-scale rhythm
which implicitly adheres to a clock model of time perception, since it
deals with the relative proportions of musical segments according to the
amount of elapsed time indicated by the notation. An exception is the
attempt by Stockhausen (1958/1975) to give an account of the time
structure of a movement of the Webern string quartet based on
information content rather than duration. When dealing with metric/
tonal music, however, duration perception in a conventional sense may
play a rather unimportant part. The hierarchical structure of meter and
grouping, based on regular binary and ternary relations, enables a
listener to judge the extension of a musical segment according to the
number of formal units that are contained within it, rather than
according to any purely durational information. Furthermore, the
strictly hierarchic organization reduces the need to track the number of
such units that have elapsed as long as the listener can retain an
awareness of the hierarchic depth to which units are embedded. In
short, hierarchic organization employing units with constant or simply
related durations resolves the need for an additive counting process.
Boulez' statement that metrical music is "filled with counting" may
therefore have little truth for tonal/metric music, since structural
extension (rather than real-time duration) is directly perceived in the
structure of hierarchical relations.
232 Eric F.Clarke
Once again, however, the situation is rather different when non-

metrical contemporary music is considered. The absence of a hierarchi-
cal structure of regular integer-related time-spans forces the listener to
base judgments of segmental length on durational properties. The
internal representation of formal musical units thus takes on the real-
time properties found in more general, non-musical contexts. Psycholo-
gical studies of time perception, that have appeared somewhat irrele-
vant for the study of rhythm in metrical music, may therefore shed light
on higher level time structures in non-metrical contemporary music. The
evidence that our attention is divided between strictly durational
properties and information properties, suggests that when listeners are

strongly focused on developing musical structures, their judgments of
proportion are based primarily on structural information rather than
duration. The implication of this is that if composers are concerned
about the perceived proportional structure of their compositions at a
relatively high level of structure, they must pay careful attention to the
structural complexity of such sections, rather than just their real-time
durational properties. Given the problems of judging the perceived
structural complexity of musical material with any degree of reliability,
due to the profound effects on listeners of stylistic familiarity and
musical training, composers are faced with considerable difficulties.
To summarize, the high-level time structure of music is distinguished
by its reliance on memory processes rather than perception. In tonal/
metric music, formal boundaries are conveyed by means of relatively
abstract musical properties (e.g. cadence, key change, melodic repeti-
tion). In contemporary music motivic repetition may function in the
same way, but the absence of a generally shared set of compositional
procedures indicates that rather more immediate parametric changes
(e.g. changes in register, pitch, density, timbre, rate of activity) are
probably decisive in establishing large-scale boundaries. Similarly, while
the relative proportions of high-level units in tonal/metric music are
measured in terms of a strictly hierarchical structure based on a constant
repeating unit, obviating the need for a counting process or an internal
clock, non-metrical contemporary music relies upon the same mechan-
isms for duration perception as are involved in everyday time percep-
tion. The involvement of both an internal clock and organized
perceptual information in making such judgments suggests that it may
be a rather complex matter for contemporary composers to control the
perceived proportions of large-scale time-spans in their music. Table 1
gives a summary of the three levels of temporal structure in music, and
their cognitive/perceptual properties.
The perception and performance of time structures in New

Music
The aim of this final section is to bring together the structural and
psychological principles considered so far, and to examine the consequ-
Table 1 Summary of structural levels in musical time, and their cognitive/perceptual

properties.
Level of Temporal Structure Cognitive Representation
1. Low-level: Expression. Perceptually represented as departures from canonical

proportional values; poorly quantified, and
experienced as expressive rather than durational
effects.
In performance, represented as programmed variations

in the rate of the clock controlling beat duration (see
level 2), and as modifications of the procedures
specifying individual notes (see level 2).
2. Middle-level: Perceptually represented as a collection of grouped

Rhythm and meter. durational equalities and inequalities organized around
a metrical framework (when the music has a meter).
In performance, represented as a collection of untimed
procedures, organized around metrical markers which
are directly timed by a programmable clock.
3. High-level: Form. Perceptually represented as a structure of hierarchical

relations, constructed by means of memory processes
and perception, and distinguished from level 2
structures by exceeding the length of the perceptual
present.
In performance, represented as a hierarchical memory
structure that forms the highest levels of a motor
program.
ences of contemporary musical developments for the perception and

performance of time structures. The preceding sections have already
revealed that wide ranging effects stem from one particular develop-
ment, namely the abandonment of metrical organization. I shall start by
reconsidering those arguments.
The role of meter both at the most detailed and the intermediate levels
of structure is essentially that of a cognitive framework around which
events are organized, Longuet-Higgins & Lee (1982) have even consi-
dered it to be a generative grammar for the production and description
of rhythms. The crucial role played by meter in defining the structure or
rhythmic sequences means that when the metrical principle is weakened
or abandoned, the precision with which rhythmic structures can be
cognitively specified is considerably reduced. In particular, the basis for
distinguishing between the canonical properties of rhythmic structures
and their expressive transformations in performance is eliminated. As
observed earlier, the breakdown of this distinction is reflected at a
compositional level in the introduction of indeterminacy into the
musical structure (either as improvised elements, or as chance proce-
dures), and in the developments of electro-acoustic music where a tape,
234 Eric F. Clarke
disk or program embodies both the structural specification of the piece

and its peformance.
It is not obvious what the perceptual consequences of this develop-
ment might be. Certainly the expressive aspects of performance are a
considerable focus of attention for both audiences and critics, and it may
in part be the inability to separate the piece from a particular expressive
interpretation that has contributed to the difficulties of reception that
contemporary music has faced. Two considerations, however, alleviate
this problem to some extent. First, timing is only one of a number of
expressive parameters, the others (dynamics, articulation, vibrato,
portamento, etc.) being generally less affected by twentieth century

developments as far as the distinction between structure and expression
is concerned. Listeners may therefore still be able to detect the
distinction between structure and expression on these bases. Second,
repeated hearings of the same piece by different performers may enable
the structural and expressive (or interpretative) aspects of the timing
structure to be distinguished on the basis of comparisons across
performances. The memory load imposed by such a comparison would
be daunting however, and apart from rather obvious changes from one
performance to another, a listener's ability to make such judgments with
any precision must be rather limited. It also leaves untouched the
problem of separating structure from expression when hearing music for
the first time, which is something that expert listeners are well able to do
with tonal/metric music.
Apart from the disorientation and possible alienation caused by the
weakening or loss of an expressive parameter, listeners may also find it
harder to separate errors of timing from intentional modifications. I have
argued elsewhere (Clarke, 1984) that in the context of a strongly marked
and well-understood musical structure, a listener can isolate timing
deviations that are simply errors from those which are intentional and
expressive on the basis of their plausibility within the structural context.
This is only possible when listeners are familiar with the structural idiom
of the music, and have an understanding of the principles which relate
structure to expression. It is the set of generative principles discussed
earlier which enables listeners familiar with the style to judge when a
performance gesture is plausible (and hence assumed to be "express-
ive"), and when it is anomalous (and hence assumed to be an error). It
seems possible that these structural constraints may even enable
listeners to remain unaware of low-level performance errors, by
selectively screening out timing distortions that have no sensible basis,
in the same way that "irrelevant" imperfections remain undetected in
visual arrays that have a compelling overall structure.
With the weakening or absence of a clear distinction between
structure and expression in contemporary music, and with the rather
limited structural understanding with which much of that music is
received, listeners are forced to take all aspects of a performance at face
value, and are as likely to be influenced in their understanding of the
music by uncontrolled error in performance as by an intended,
expressive device. This puts enormous pressure on performers to play

with a degree of precision that is less crucial in more traditional music,
and makes it possible for listeners to be misled in their understanding of
a piece when a performer fails to meet those demands.
The problems of correctly identifying an expressive structure, or
adjusting to its absence when none exists, are, however, less significant
in their consequences than is the difficulty of establishing an appropriate
and stable representation of non-metrical rhythmic structures. Meter
acts as an overlearned perceptual framework around which rhythmic
structures are organized in much the same way as does the scale
component in representing tonal melodies, as described by Dowling

(1978). Overlearned schemata of this sort are both economical and
powerful as components of a perceptual strategy, enabling limitations
on the number of absolute values identifiable along a single perceptual
dimension (the famous 7 plus or minus 2 cited by Miller, 1956) to be
overcome. It is on this basis that we are able to keep track of metrical
music that may make use of a very large number of durations arranged
in a variety of patterns. A three minute piece of piano music used in a
recent performance study (Clarke, 1985) involves no fewer than sixteen
different durations, but offers no perceptual difficulties due to the
arrangement of this multitude of durations around a clear and constant
metrical structure.
In the absence of a metrical structure, it seems inevitable that the
number of absolute durational categories that a listener can establish is
reduced to the kind of baseline investigated by Miller (1956). Those
categories are supplemented by a sensitivity to continuous graduated
durational changes (durational gradients), but since the same is also true
of a metrical context, there can be no avoiding the perceptual
impoverishment of a non-metrical style when evaluated against its
metrical counterpart on the basis of perceptual elaboration.
However, it would be a mistake to assume that the type of temporal
organization upon which this discussion has focused exhausts the
possibilities for rhythmic structure in music. Contemporary music has
explored other temporal parameters such as rate of activity, or
information density, that are regarded as comparatively insignificant in
metrical music. Continuously variable properties such as these can be
successfully structured without the type of overlearned cognitive frame
that meter exemplifies when the aim is to generate perceptions of
velocity, duration, density gradient, and so on. In other words, when
the musical structure does not require a listener to preserve an accurate
representation of a large number of distinct durational types, the
absence of meter is not a handicap.
A feature of these alternative temporal principles is that they do not
lend themselves to the type of deep hierarchical structure that is possible
in metrical music. It is the recursive nature of metrical relations that
generates this deep hierarchy, and it appears that no such recursive
principle operates for velocity or density. Larger musical groups (i.e.
formal units) can be demarcated by changes in these parameters, as
236 Eric F.Clarke
discussed above, but the inter-group forces to which they may be

subject usually differ from those at the intra-group level. This weaken-
ing of the hierarchic principle in the time domain leaves a variety of
associative structuring possibilities available, which offer a different
compositional potential from that of hierarchical structure. Only when
the primary compositional aim is to achieve the sort of total organic
unity represented, for instance, in highly developed sonata form
structures, is hierarchic organization (in both the compositional process
and perceptual representation) a necessary requirement.
The main thrust of the foregoing discussion can be summarized as
follows. If contemporary-music is to continue to exploit a time structure

that makes use of a large number of distinct durations, organized into a
hierarchic structure and employing a variety of relations of similarity
and difference between related rhythmic motifs, listeners will only be
able to keep track of such a structure if they are provided with a framing
device like meter. If such a structure is not the compositional goal, then
a number of alternative organizing principles can be adopted, making
use of temporal properties such as rate, density, the continuum between
regularity and irregularity, and so on, that do not play a major
structuring role in the tonal/metric music. These properties do not lend
themselves to the development of elaborate hierarchic structures, but on
the other hand can be successfully followed by a listener without the aid
of a continuous concurrent frame such as meter. Both of these two
general temporal strategies have enormous compositional and percep-
tual potential. The problems of reception encountered by contemporary
music may have stemmed partly from the failure of listeners to realize
that such differences in structural intent, and hence compositional
strategy, exist, and to make corresponding adjustments to the way in
which they listen to the music. Similarly, one reason why a good deal of
new music is unsatisfactory or uninteresting may be the failure of
composers to realize this same distinction between hierarchic, frame-
dependent structures and their associative counterparts, with the
consequence that impossible and unthought-out demands are made of
both listeners and performers.
The principle of metric organization has by no means disappeared in
contemporary music. Indeed the music of Steve Reich, Phil Glass, Terry
Riley and other so-called "minimalists" has made meter one of the most
prominent structural devices. Nonetheless it seems certain that a
significant body of music will continue to be composed which makes use
of complex time structures outside a metrical framework. It should be
the aim of both psychologists of music and composers to discover the
limits and potential of such time structures, and to investigate the
possibilities for organizing musical time within new frames of reference.
References
L. van Beethoven, Sonata op. 53 (Waldstein) for piano, in Beethoven Complete Piano Sonatas,
vol. II, H. Schenker (ed.) (Universal Edition, Vienna, copyright 1947).
I. Bengtsson & A. Gabrielsson, "Analysis and synthesis of musical rhythm." In J.
Sundberg (Ed.): Studies of Music Performance (Publications issued by the Royal Swedish
Academy of Music No. 39, 1983).
L. Berio, Tempi Concertati, (Universal, Vienna, copyright, 1958).
W. Berry, Structural Functions in Music. (Prentice Hall, New Jersey, 1976).
P. Boulez, Boulez on Music Today. (Faber and Faber, London, 1971).
E.F. Clarke, 'Timing in the performance of Erik Satie's 'Vexations'." Acta Psychologica 50,
p. 1-19 (1982).
E.F. Clarke, Structure and expression in the rhythm of piano performance. Unpublished
Ph.D. thesis, University of Exeter (1984).
E.F. Clarke, "Some aspects of rhythm and expression in performances of Erik Satie's
'Gnossienne no. 5'." Music Perception, 2(3), p. 299-328 (1985).
M. Clynes & J. Walker, "Neurobiologic functions of rhythm, time and pulse in music." In
M. Clynes (Ed.): Music, Mind and Brain. (Plenum Press, New York, 171-216, 1982).
G.W. Cooper & L.B. Meyer, The Rhythmic Structure of Music (University of Chicago Press,
1960).
J. Cott, Stockhausen: Conversations with the Composer. (Pan Books, London, 1974).
W.J. Dowling, "Scale and contour: two components of a theory of memory for melodies."
Psychological Review 85(4), p. 341-354 (1978).
P. Fraisse, The Psychology of Time. (Harper, New York, 1963).
P. Fraisse, "Rhythm and Tempo." In. D. Deutsch (Ed.): The Psychology of Music. (Academic
Press, London, 149-181, 1982). -
J.J. Gibson, The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. (George Allen and Unwin, London,
1966).
L.M. Gomez & L.C. Robertson, "The filled duration illusion: the function of temporal and
nontemporal set." Perception and Psychophysics, 25(5), p. 432-438 (1979).
S. Handel & J. Oshinsky, "The meter of syncopated auditory polyrhythms." Perception and
Psychophysics, 30(1), p. 1-9 (1981).
A.B. Kristofferson, "A quantal step function in duration discrimination." Perception and
Psychophysics, 27(4), p. 300-306 (1980).
F. Lerdahl & R. Jackendoff, A Generative Theory of Tonal Music (MIT Press, Cambridge,
Mass., 1983).
G. Ligeti, Continuum, (Schott, Mainz, 1968, copyright 1970).
H.C. Longuet-Higgins, "The perception of music." Proceedings of the Royal Society of London,
B205, p. 307-322 (1979).
H.C. Longuet-Higgins & C.S. Lee, "The perception of musical rhythm." Perception, 11,
p. 115-128 (1982).
W. Lutosiawski, 3rd Symphony (Ed. Moeck, Warsaw).
L.B. Meyer, Explaining Music. (University of California press, 1973).
J.A. Michon, "The making of the present: a tutorial review." In J. Requin (Ed.): Attention
and Performance VII (Erlbaum, Hillsale, New Jersey, 1978).
G.A. Miller, "The magical number seven, plus or minus two: some limits on our capacity
for processing information." Psychological Review, 63, p. 81-97 (1956).
E. Narmour, "Some major theoretical problems concerning the concept of hierarchy in the
analysis of tonal music." Music Perception, 1(2) p. 129-199 (1983).
R. Ornstein, On the Experience of Time. (Penguin, London, 1969).
D-J. Povel, "Internal representation of simple temporal patterns." Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Perception and Performance 7(1), p. 3-18 (1981).
C. Schachter, Rhythm and linear analysis M a preliminary study. In F. Salzer and C.
Schachter (Eds.): The Music Forum Vol IV (Columbia University Press, 1976).
H. Schenker, Five Graphic Music Analyses (Dover, New York, 1969; trans. from 1932
German edition).
C.E. Seashore, Psychology of Music (McGraw Hill, 1938, republished by Dover, New York,
1967).
238 Eric F.Clarke
L.H. Shaffer, "Performances of Chopin, Bach and Bartok: studies in motor programming."
Cognitive Psychology, 13, p. 326-376 (1981).
J.A. Sloboda, "The communication of musical metre in piano performance." Quarterly
Journal of Experimental Psychology, 35A, p . 377-396 (1983).
J.A. Sloboda & D.H.H. Parker, "Immediate recall of melodies." In P. Howell, I. Cross & R.
West (Eds.): Musical Structure and Cognition (Academic Press, London, 143-168, 1985).
M.J. Steedman, "The perception of musical rhythm and meter" Perception, 6, p. 555-569
(1977).
K. Stockhausen, "Structure and experiential time" Die Reihe, vol 2, p. 64-75 (1958; English
edition by Universal Edition, London, 1975).
K. Stockhausen, Klavierstück X (Universal Edition, Vienna, 1957-1961, copyright 1967).
K. Stockhausen, Kontakte (Universal Edition, Vienna, 1959-60, copyright 1966).
K. Stockhausen, "How time passes . . . " Die Reihe, vol 3 p. 10-41 (1959; English edition by
Universal Edition, London, 1975).
K. Stockhausen, Zeitmasse (Universal Edition, Vienna, 1955-56, copyright 1957).
J. Sundberg, L. Fryden & A. Askenfelt, "What tells you the player is musical? An analysis-
by-synthesis study of music performance." In J. Sundberg (Ed.): Studies of Music
Performance (Publications issued by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music No 39,
1983).
E.A.C. Thomas & N.E. Cantor, "Interdependence between the processing of temporal and
non-temporal information." In J. Requin (Ed.): Attention and Performance VII (Erlbaum,
Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1978).
N. Todd, "A model of expressive timing in tonal music." Music Perception, 3(1) 33-58
(1985).
M. Treisman, 'Temporal discrimination and the indifference interval: implications for a
model of the 'internal dock'." Psychological Monographs, 77(B), whole no. 576 (1963).
M. Yeston, The Stratification of Musical Rhythm. (Yale University Press, 1976).

Clarke - Levels of Structure in The Organization of Musical Time - 1987

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Clarke - Levels of Structure in The Organization of Musical Time - 1987

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

This article was downloaded by: [University of Texas Libraries]

On: 04 December 2014, At: 10:47

Contemporary Music Review

Levels of structure in the organization of musical time

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07494468708567059

PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE

Levels of structure in the organization

Music is organized hierarchically in a network of interconnected levels. Different levels

KEY WORDS structure, expression, perception, performance, rhythm, meter.

The organization of musical time into a series of structural levels is

As a preliminary it is important to establish what is meant by the term

understood that the "pitches" represented at higher levels in these

Levels of temporal structure

strong that such an attempt must start with an account of rhythmic

to which these performance transformations are specified in the score

primary rhythmic property is the duration between event onsets, the

and emergent properties observed with intermediate level temporal

properties (metrical structures, group boundaries, durational propor-

Temporal properties in new music

tinuously variable and discrete structures in his terms "smooth" and

a certain indeterminacy in the precise temporal location of events.

elements into compositional structure, such as the controlled or limited

meter are separable aspects of a rhythmic structure, grouping structures

tonal indicators, this has the consequence that emergent grouping

Attacca 'subito il Rondo:

Feldman, Wolff) been associated with a move away from temporal

Perceptual representations for time structures

Just as theories of rhythmic structure in music have primarily taken pre-

indicating interpretative changes with slurs in the notation. Even if such

As far as individual note proportions are concerned, there is some

500 503 500 500 IDEALISED TIMING (MSEC.)

Figure 3 A model for the internal representation of rhythmic sequences,

is judged (both perceptually and in performance) by the rate of beats

are important as contributors to the sense of directed motion in rhythm.

Low level representation: Expression

The perceptual representations discussed up to this point account for

asked to play metronomically, a pianist still shows consistent timing

which timing values are related to a structural interpretation of the

500 320 2,100 530 350 2,300 EXPRESSIVE TIMING (MSEC.)

Figure 4 Illustration of the operation of expressive timing modifiers at two

3, and then designate any deviations from these simple proportions as

E E E E ©E E E PROCEDURES WITH ACCENT

Figure 5 A schematic illustration of the sense of directed motion in a rhythmic

relaxation, referred to earlier, which occupies a somewhat ambiguous

Figure 6 A schematic illustration of the sense of directed motion in a rhythmic

with "crescendo" and "decrescendo" marks, and directed motion with

High level representation: Form

and more or less continuous. Perception is a process which goes

A model such as this is required if we are to explain how we hear speech

immediate, local sort, such as a change in the intensity, rapidity or

groups, extending from units of only two or three notes in extent up to

tonal/metric music which play a very considerable role in the larger-scale

comparison with other time intervals. The variability of time judgments

Once again, however, the situation is rather different when non-

properties and information properties, suggests that when listeners are

The perception and performance of time structures in New

Table 1 Summary of structural levels in musical time, and their cognitive/perceptual

Level of Temporal Structure Cognitive Representation

1. Low-level: Expression. Perceptually represented as departures from canonical

In performance, represented as programmed variations

2. Middle-level: Perceptually represented as a collection of grouped

3. High-level: Form. Perceptually represented as a structure of hierarchical

ences of contemporary musical developments for the perception and