The Rhythmic Structure of Music

Grosvenor Cooper
9780226115221
0-226-11522-4

In this influential book on the subject of rhythm, the authors develop a theoretical framework based essentially on a Gestalt approach, viewing rhythmic experience in terms of pattern perception or groupings..

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Musical examples of increasing complexity are used to provide training in the analysis, performance, and writing of rhythm, with exercises for the student's own work. This is a path-breaking work, important alike to music students and teachers, but it will make profitable reading for performers, too.--New York Times Book Review When at some future time theories of rhythm . . . are . . . as well understood, and as much discussed as theories of harmony and counterpoint . . . they will rest in no small measure on the foundations laid by Cooper and Meyer in this provocative dissertation on the rhythmic structure of music.--Notes . . . . a significant, courageous and, on the whole, successful attempt to deal with a very controversial and neglected subject. Certainly no one who takes the time to read it will emerge from the experience unchanged or unmoved.--Journal of Music Theory The late GROSVENOR W. COOPER, author of Learning to Listen, was professor of music at the University of California at Santa Cruz.