A duration is an amount of time or a particular time interval. For example, an event in the common sense has a duration greater than zero (but not very long), but in certain specialised senses, a duration of zero. It is often cited as one of the fundamental aspects of music, see also rhythm. A watch Attempting to understand time has long been a prime occupation for philosophers, scientists and artists. ... An event is something that takes place; an occurrence and arbitrary point in time. ... Music is an art, entertainment, or other human activity which involves organized and audible sound, though definitions vary. ... Rhythm (Greek ρυθμός = tempo) is the variation of the duration of sounds or other events over time. ...

Durations, and their beginnings and endings, may be described as long, short, or taking a specific amount of time. Often duration is described according to terms borrowed from descriptions of pitch. As such, the duration complement is the amount of different durations used, the duration scale is an ordering (scale) of those durations from shortest to longest, the duration range is the difference in length between the shortest and longest, and the duration hierarchy is an ordering of those durations based on frequency of use (DeLone et. al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 3). In music, pitch is the perception of the frequency of a note. ... The word complement (with an e in the second syllable, not to be confused with a different word, compliment with an i) has a number of uses. ... A scale is either a device used for measurement of weights, or a series of ratios against which different measurements can be compared. ... The range of a vehicle is the maximum distance it can cover without needing to be refueled or recharged. ... For the various types of hierarchy, see hierarchy (disambiguation) A hierarchy (in Greek: Ιεραρχία, it is derived from ιερός-hieros, sacred, and άρχω-arkho, rule) is a system of ranking and organizing things or people, where each element of the system (except for the top element) is subordinate to a single other element. ...

Durational patterns are the foreground details projected against a background metric structure, which includes meter, tempo, and all rhythmic aspects which produce temporal regularity or structure. Duration patterns may be divided into rhythmic units and rhythmic gestures. (DeLone et. al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 3) However, they may also be described using terms borrowed from the metrical feet of poetry: iamb (weak-strong), anapest (weak-weak-strong), trochee (strong-weak), dactyl (strong-weak-weak), and amphibrach (weak-strong-weak), which may overlap to explain ambigouity (Cooper and Meyer, 1960). See: International System of Units, colloquially called the Metric System, and also metrication. ... Metre or meter is the measurement of a musical line into measures of stressed and unstressed beats, indicated in Western notation by a symbol called a time signature. ... In musical terminology, tempo (Italian for time) is the speed or pace of a given piece. ... A rhythmic unit is a durational pattern which occupies a period of time equivalent to a pulse or pulses on an underlying metric level, as opposed to a rhythmic gesture. ... A rhythmic gesture is a durational pattern which, in contrast to a rhythmic unit, does not occupy a period of time equivalent to a pulse or pulses on an underlying metric level. ... In verse, a foot is the basic unit of meter used to describe rhythm. ... An iamb is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... An anapaest is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A trochee is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ... A dactyl (Gr. ... An amphibrac is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. ...

See also: time scale. A time scale specifies divisions of time. ...

Sources

• Cooper and Meyer (1960). The Rhythmic Structure of Music. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226115224. Cited in Delone directly below.
• DeLone et. al. (Eds.) (1975). Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. ISBN 0130493465.