Metric |

(Greek metrixn, from metron – measure) – the doctrine of the meter. In ancient music theory – a section devoted to poetic meters, which determined the sequence of syllabic and, thus, muses. durations. This understanding of M. is preserved in cf. century, although in connection with the separation of verse from music already in the Hellenistic. era M. more often included in grammar than in music theory. In modern times, meter, as the doctrine of poetic meters (including those based not on duration, but on the number of syllables and stress and not related to music), is included in the theory of poetry. In music theory, the term “M.” re-introduced by M. Hauptmann (1853) as the name of the doctrine of accent ratios that form specific muses. meter – beat. X. Riemann and his followers included in M. (not without the influence of poetic M.) larger constructions up to the period inclusive, in which they recognized the same ratio of light and heavy moments as in the measure. This led to a mixture of metric. phenomena with phrasing and syntactic ones, up to the substitution of bar boundaries with motivic ones. Such an expanded understanding of M. can be considered obsolete; then. music M. is limited to the doctrine of tact.

References: Катуар Г., Музыкальная форма, ч. 1- Метрика, М., 1937; Hauptmann M., The nature of harmonics and metrics, Lpz., 1853; Rossbach A., Westphal R., Metrics of the Greek dramatists and poets…, vol. l — 3, Lpz., 1854-1865, 1889 (Theory of the musical arts of the Hellenes, vol. 3); Riemann H., System of musical rhythm and metric, Lpz., 1903; Wiehmayer Th., Musical rhythm and meter, Magdeburg, (1917).

M. G. Harlap