Aspects of Meter
Carl Schachter · 1998
Abstract Meter is a problem. Theorists investigating rhythm have reached no consensus about such fundamental issues as the nature of the metrical accent, the possibility of meter over large spans of time, and the status of discrepancies between the meter as notated and some of the obvious rhythmic emphases in a piece. When different theorists attempt a metrical analysis of the same piece or passage, the divergent results can be striking indeed. The classic instance is that most overanalyzed piece of music, the theme for the variations that open Mozart’s Piano Sonata in A Major, K.331. Hugo Riemann maintains that Mozart failed to notate the true downbeats, and he “improves” the notation by putting bar lines in the middle of Mozart’s measures.