listen8e

2 | Meter

Any recurring pattern of strong and weak beats, such as the ONE two and ONE two three we have referred to above, is called a meter. Meter is a strong/weak pattern repeated again and again.

Each occurrence of this repeated pattern, consisting of a principal strong beat and one or more weaker beats, is called a measure, or bar. In Western music there are only two basic kinds of meter: duple meter and triple meter.

In duple meter the beats are grouped in twos (ONE two ONE two) or in fours (ONE two THREE four ONE two THREE four). Duple meter is instantly familiar from marches — such as “Yankee Doodle” — which tend always to use duple meter in deference to the human anatomy (LEFT right, LEFT right, LEFT right):

Yan-kee doo-dle came to town . . .

ONE two ONE two
In triple meter the beats are grouped in threes (ONE two three ONE two three). Our oldest national songs, “The Star-Spangled Banner” and “My Country, ’Tis of Thee,” are in triple meter:

Oh, say can you see . . . My coun- try, ’tis of thee . . .

ONE two three ONE ONE two three ONE two three

Two other national songs, “America the Beautiful” and “God Bless America,” are in duple meter.

Often the main beats of duple and triple meter are subdivided into quicker pulses. This usually happens by dividing the main beat into either twos or threes. When the main beats are divided in twos, the meter is called a simple meter. Dividing the main beats in threes creates compound meters with two or three main beats and six or nine quicker ones:

ONE	two	ONE	two	three
ONE two three	FOUR five six	ONE two three	FOUR five six	SEVEN eight nine

The round “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” is in compound duple meter. While the first voice is moving at a fast six-beat clip at the words “Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,” the second voice comes in pounding out the basic duple meter, “ROW, row, ROW”:

first voice:
Row,	row,	row your	boat	gently	down the	stream,		Merrily,	merrily,	merrily,	merrily,
1 2 3	4 5 6	1 2 3	4 5 6	1 2 3	4 5 6	1 2 3	4 5 6	1 2 3	4 5 6	1 2 3	4 5 6
ONE	two	ONE	two	ONE	two	ONE	two	ONE	two	ONE	two
						second voice:		Row,	row,	row . . .
								ONE	two	ONE	two

Meters with five beats, seven beats, and so on have never been used widely in Western music, though they are found frequently enough in some other musical cultures. It was an unusual choice for nineteenth-century composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to have featured quintuple meter, five beats to a bar, in his popular Sixth Symphony.

Oh,	say	can	you	see . . .	My	coun-	try,	’tis		of thee . . .
	ONE	two	three	ONE	ONE	two	three	ONE	two	three

Yan-kee	doo-dle	came to	town . . .
ONE	two	ONE	two