Some Traditional Questions of Meter Approached from the Perspective of Projective Process
Christopher F. Hasty · 2020
Abstract This chapter distinguishes between accent and “unaccent.” To make a distinction between accent and “unaccent,” one could say that the beginning of each sound is accented, and the rest of the sound is unaccented. Clearly, if beginning is regarded as a durationless instant, this statement will make little sense—if beginning is something that can be distinguished from the sound and separated from the sound's duration, accent in this case could not be perceived and regarded as a psychoacoustic attribute. A solution is to regard accent as beginning, but not to detach beginning from the event begun. One could then concur with Moritz Hauptmann that metrical accent is the accent of beginning—that “energy” being an active, creative potential for duration. What, then, would constitute a weak beat or “unaccent”? It could be said that any articulation or any possibility for articulation within the promised duration of the event begun would be “unaccent,” or not the beginning of the event.