Rhythm

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Rhythm (from greek ¿¿¿¿¿¿ - rhythmos, "any measured flow or movement, symmetry") is the variation of the length and accentuation of a series of sounds or other events.The study of rhythm, stress, and pitch in speech is called prosody; it is a topic in linguistics. Narmour (1980, p. 147-53) describes three categories of prosodic rules which create rhythmic successions which are additive (same duration repeated), cumulative (short-long), or countercumulative (long-short). Cumulation is associated with closure or relaxation, countercumulation with openness or tension, while additive rhythms are open-ended and repetitive. Richard Middleton points out this method cannot account for syncopation and suggests the concept of transformation.