• Introduction


• Note on Terminology, Language, and Musical Examples


• Chapter 1. Musical Meter between Composition and Perception


• 1.1. The Concept of Meter in the Late Eighteenth Century


• 1.2. Revival of the Hierarchical Concept of Meter in the Twentieth Century


• 1.3. Toward a Dynamic Model of Meter


• 1.4. Borrowing from a Different Model


• Chapter 2. Finding Meter


• 2.1. Statistical Parameters


• 2.2. Harmony


• 2.3. Streaming and the Role of Bass


• 2.4. Cadence (Structural Accent)


• Chapter 3. Sustaining Meter -- Challenging Meter


• 3.1. Metrum and Regularity of Beats


• 3.2. Missing Beats


• 3.3. General Pauses


• 3.4. Fermatas


• 3.5. Syncopations


• Chapter 4. Changing Meter I: Change of Period


• 4.1. Imbroglio


• 4.2. Submetrical Dissonance


• 4.3. Hemiola


• Chapter 5. Changing Meter II: Change of Phase


• 5.1. Chains of Rhythmical Dissonances


• 5.2. Other Parameters in Displacement Dissonances


• 5.3. Imitation


• 5.4. Ligaturae, Retardation, Anticipation


• 5.5. Syncopated Accompaniment


• 5.6. Remark on Subliminal Dissonances


• Chapter 6. Changing Meter III: Change of Tactus


• 6.1. Changes of Taktteile in Compound Meters


• 6.2. Changes of Taktteile in Double Measures


• 6.3. Perceptual Factors


• 6.4. Taktteile and the Tactus


• Chapter 7. Analyses of Long-Range Metrical Strategies


• Haydn, String Quartet in C major, Op. 50 No. 2, First Movement


• Haydn, String Quartet in F minor, Op. 55 No. 2, Finale


• Chapter 8. Wit, Comedy and Metric Manipulations in Haydn and Mozart's Personal Styles


• 8.1. Haydn


• 8.2. Mozart


• 8.3. Haydn's Earlier and Later String Quartets


• 8.4. Inconclusive Conclusion


• Bibliography


• Index of Compositions by Haydn and Mozart


• General Index

Danuta Mirka is Reader in Music at the University of Southampton. She is the author of of The Sonoristic Structuralism of Krzysztof Penderecki and coeditor, with Kofi Agawu, of Communication in Early Music.

Focusing on the period of most intense metric experimentation in the work of both Haydn and Mozart, author Danuta Mirka presents here a systematic discussion of the composers' metric strategies. Combining historical music theory with the cognitive study of music, Mirka's award-winning book sheds new light on this repertoire and redefines the role of meter and rhythm in Classical music.