METRICAL PATTERNS

More information

The architectural structure of Saint Mark’s Square, captured from a distance. The caption reads, the Gothic arches of this famous long arcade in Saint Mark’s Square in Venice clearly show duple subdivisions, much like simple meters in music.

You will hear the regularly recurring patterns of two, three, or four beats in much of the music we will study. As in poetry, these patterns, or meters, depend on regular accents. The first accented beat of each pattern is known as a downbeat, referring to the downward stroke of a conductor’s hand (see conducting patterns, p. 51). The most basic pattern, known as duple meter, alternates a strong downbeat with a weak beat: ONE two, ONE two; or, if you marched it, LEFT right, LEFT right.

Triple meter, another basic pattern, has three beats to a measure—one strong beat and two weak ones (ONE two three). This meter is traditionally associated with dances such as the waltz and the minuet.

Quadruple meter contains four beats to the measure, with a primary accent on the first beat and a secondary accent on the third. Although it is sometimes difficult to distinguish between duple and quadruple meter, quadruple meter usually has a broader feeling.

In simple meters (simple duple, simple triple, and simple quadruple), the beat is divided into two (ONE-and, two-and; or ONE-and, two-and, three-and). However, in some patterns, the beat is divided into three; these are known as compound meters. The most common compound meter is sextuple meter (compound duple), which has six beats to the measure, or two main beats that each divides into three (ONE-and-a, TWO-and-a). Marked by a gently flowing effect, this pattern is often found in lullabies and nursery rhymes:

The examples on page 11 illustrate the four basic patterns. Not all pieces begin on a downbeat (beat 1). For example, Greensleeves, in sextuple meter, begins with an upbeat (beat 6). (Notice that the Frost poem given earlier is in duple meter and begins with an upbeat on “the.”)