Thanks to all for your responses to my query; Justin London's list of references has proven particularly helpful. What a wonderful living database this list can be, at its best. <div><br></div><div><div><div class="gmail_quote">
On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 11:21 AM, Gregory Karl <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:gregkarl@frontier.com">gregkarl@frontier.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Under these conditions, perceived metric groupings could only be subjective—at least that is how I parse the jargon-heavy prose:-)<br></blockquote><div><br></div><div>While I appreciate (and reciprocate) the smiley-face, I'm not sure why it's "jargon-heavy" to use the term "isochronous" in the context of a professional music theory list, when it has been in use for a long time in metric perception research (and the term "subjective rhythmization" has been around since 1894, although it was only brought to my attention through Justin London's <i>Hearing in Time</i>). But Greg's explanation of my question is correct.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Michael asks what the aim of my project is. I am writing a critical-analytic essay on an orchestral movement by the British composer Elisabeth Lutyens entitled "Chronikos," part of a much larger work for tenor, chorus and orchestra called <i>Essence of our Happinesses </i>(1968)<i> </i>that explores various modes of human temporal experience. The movement begins with a series of 9 identical, dissonant eighth-note dyads played by marimba and harp, with no changes of dynamics or other accentual factors that could suggest a particular meter to a listener. This "clock-like ostinato" (Lutyens's term) persists throughout the movement, with less predictable things happening against it starting on the 10th eighth-note pulse of the movement. </div>
<div><br></div><div>My own intuition is that listeners would tend to hear the first 9 pulses as "STRONG-weak-STRONG-weak" etc., meaning that the onset of new material on the 10th, "weak" pulse would seem "too soon" because it disrupts the hypothetical listener's projection of an upcoming strong pulse on #11. (This assumes that most listeners would find it difficult not to impose <i>some</i> sort of metric framework on a series of 9-10 identical pulses.) The purpose of my query to the list was simply to find some empirical evidence that would either support or contradict that intuition, to ensure that I don't make the mistake of assuming that the way I hear the passage it is the way most other listeners would hear it. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Thanks again for your comments and suggestions,</div><div>Laurel</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>
I was hoping to differentiate between two kinds of hypotheses:<br>
<br>
1) Duple preference based on bodily structure—Just as humans use base ten because we (well, most of us) have ten digits on our hands, so perhaps we prefer (most naturally hear, that is) binary metric groupings because we have two legs(?).<br>
<br>
2) Duple preference based on some aspect of perceptual or cognitive processing.<br>
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<br>
Greg Karl<br>
Jay NY<div class="im HOEnZb"><br>
<br>
<br>
On Feb 28, 2012, at 8:36 PM, Michael Morse wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Like Greg, I'm a little confused here too. Do you mean "blank pulse" and "duple and triple meter"? ("isochronous clicks," " binary/ternary 'measures')? The word "preference" has me puzzled, too, ditto "subjective"; although a matter of perception, more strictly of "perceiving as" rather than "perceiving"--perhaps that's what you mean by "subjective"?--such orientations don't seem to me altogether voluntary. You can see the famous illustration as a duck or as a rabbit, and sometimes decide to see it as one or the other; but mostly the alternatives happen of themselves, often oscillating without and even against our will.<br>
<br>
What is the aim of this project?<br>
<br>
MW Morse<br>
Trent University<br>
Peterborough, Oshawa<br>
<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5">
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div>-- <br>Laurel Parsons, Ph.D.<br>Quest University Canada<br>3200 University Blvd.<br>Squamish, BC<br>VB8 0N8<br><a href="mailto:laurel.parsons@questu.ca" target="_blank">laurel.parsons@questu.ca</a><br>
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