Mathematics of Music - Time, Rhythm and Meter

Time, Rhythm and Meter

Without the boundaries of rhythmic structure – a fundamental equal and regular arrangement of pulse repetitivity, accent, phrase and duration – music would be impossible. In Old English the word "rhyme", derived from "rhythm", became associated and confused with rim – "number" – and modern musical use of terms like meter and measure also reflects the historical importance of music, along with astronomy, in the development of counting, arithmetic and the exact measurement of time and periodicity that is fundamental to physics.

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