Metronome
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A metronome is any device that produces a regulated: audible, visual or touch (any combination of the three) pulse, usually used to establish a steady tempo, measured in beats-per-minute (BPM) for the performance of musical compositions. It is an invaluable practice tool for musicians that goes back hundreds of years.
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[edit] History
The metronome was invented by Dietrich Nikolaus Winkel in Amsterdam in 1812. Johann Mälzel copied several of Winkel's construction ideas and received the patent for the portable metronome in 1816. Ludwig van Beethoven was the first well-known composer to indicate specific metronome markings in his music, in 1817, but many performances of his music still vary widely from his tempo indications, particularly in slow movements.
Musicians use metronomes when they practice in order to maintain an established tempo; by adjusting the metronome, facility is achieved at varying tempi. Even in pieces that do not require strict time (see rubato), a metronome is used to give an indication of the general tempo intended by the composer. Many pieces provide a tempo indication at the top of the manuscript.
One common type of metronome is the wind-up metronome, which uses an adjustable weight on the end of a rod to control the tempo: slide the weight up the rod to decrease tempo, or down the rod to increase tempo. The pendulum rod swings back and forth in tempo; mechanics inside the metronome produce a clicking sound on each swing of the rod.
Most modern metronomes are electronic, with a quartz crystal to maintain accuracy, comparable to those used in wristwatches. The simplest electronic metronomes have a dial or buttons to control the tempo; some can also produce a tuning note (usually A440 hertz). They range from simple credit-card sized devices to the complicated "Dr. Beat", manufactured by Boss, which can play polyrhythms and can "count aloud", using a sampled voice.
Sophisticated metronomes can produce two or more distinct sounds. A regular "tick" sound indicates the beat within each measure, and another, distinct sound (often of a different timbre, higher pitch and/or greater volume) indicates the beginning of each measure. A tempo control adjusts the amount of time separating each beat (typically measured in beats per minute), while another, discrete, control adjusts the meter of the rhythm and thus the number of beats in each measure. This number is an integer often ranging from one to six, though some metronomes go up to nine or higher. Some devices also have options for irregular time signatures such as 5/4 or 7/8, in which other distinct sounds indicate the beginning of each subgroup of beats within a measure.
For example, if the user selects four beats per measure (for example a time signature of 4/4), then the metronome might sound like so:
- Ching!, tick, tick, tick,
- Ching!, tick, tick, tick, …
while an irregular meter of 7/8 might produce this pattern:
- Ching!, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tick,
- Ching!, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tick, ...
Another pattern for 7/8 is
- Ching!, tick, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick,
- Ching!, tick, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick,...
Many electronic musical keyboards have built-in metronome functions.
The word metronome first appeared in English c.1815, and was formed from the Greek words:
metron = measure, and nomos = regulating
[edit] Criticism of Metronome use
A metronome will never give the rhythm and pulse ("groove"), that actually underlies a piece music when performed in its correct style.
Even though sheet music contains notations of rhythm (e.g. with eighth notes, etc.), the "notes when performed by musicians" will never be played exactly as written. This is because the musicians are interpreting the music in its particular style, with musical phrases including light pauses, slow-downs, speed-ups, etc. In popular music, this is often termed "groove" and "swing".[1]
| “ | Another thing that becomes clear [...], is how much the listener's perception of rhythm differs from the reality of the metronome. While Feuermann's performances seemed to provide the clearest 'feel' of the beat -meaning that to a listener, the rhythm and tempo seemed the most clear and compelling- when trying to set a metronome, one found a slightly changing tempo throughout almost every measure -a constant rhythmic 'push and pull'- making metronome indications sometimes recordable only as a range between two or three adjacent markings or as an average. At the same time, other performers [...] whose performances did not yield to the ear as strong a sense of tempo or rhythm, fit more easily within a specific metronome marking. From this, it is clear that the feeling and perception of rhythm are conveyed much more by the performers choice of emphasis or 'pulse' than by strict adherence to any absolute metronomic rhythm.[2] | „ |
As is well known among percussionists from the jazz and Latin styles, even highly "rhythmical" music such as Jazz, Salsa, Samba, etc. does not have a metronome's simplistic division of time. In addition to obvious speedups and slowdowns (e.g. during musical phrasing); the inner beats do not coincide with the metronome ticks. [1] (The actual rhythm does not only have just linear speedups and slowdowns, there is often certain inner tensions and resolution, in the way that certain notes are grouped naturally closer or further apart, or speed up, etc.):
| “ | Actual performance timings involve complex ratios that neither add nor multiply in any simple fashion.[3] | ” |
It is impossible to notate the details of musical rhythm on paper, or with single-parameter metronome-markings that reduce beat/meter to a single "beats per minute" value. The metronome can only be an indication of the average quickness of a piece of music. The only way that a rhythm of a particular style can be accurately noted (with all its stylistic characteristics), is by hearing it (e.g. recording) performed by someone who is familiar with its style.
Concerning sheet music: Sheet music notation is an approximation of rhythm - musicians that are familiar with the specific music's style will be able to naturally phrase the music appropriately:
| “ | [...] This suggests that listeners who are steeped in a particular musical culture will have a repertoire metrical “templates” which allow them to readily grasp such patterns, both as the music starts and as it changes as it goes on.[3] | ” |
The main criticism of the metronome usage is:
- preventing the learning of the musical style, by the metronome's enforced "simplistic, even, fixed, mechanical beat schema", instead of the unrelated true stylistic rhythm with its inherent tensions and swing etc.
- being a reductionistic view of actual rhythm
- inhibiting creativity
- causes limitations, rather than expressive variety
The criticisms also apply to musicians who play music in a metronomical fashion (always on beat), if they are not familior with the particular music's actual stylistic characteristics. The same goes for click-tracks used for synchronization when laying down different studio-tracks during recordings. Today electronic music incorporating traditional musical styles (and fusion electronic music) is often criticised in the same manner: beats are simply looped, without any attention to complex stylistic traditions that underlie the music that is "electonicized" - this is one of the challenges facing electronic music.
Concerning Western music's rubato and rhythmic flexibility:
| “ | The uneven beats in African and North Indian Rhythms are no more complex (no less regular) than the patterns of expressive timing that occur in western music.[3] | ” |
Numerous composers (Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz, Liszt, Mendelssohn, ...) have expressed criticism of the metronome. [4]
[edit] Cultural References
The 2008 hit song "Handlebars" by the Flobots uses the line "I can keep rhythm with no metronome"
[edit] Bibliography
- Metronome Techniques, by Frederick Franz, New Haven, Connecticut, 1988
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b Understanding the Samba Groove. Pedro Batista.
- ^ Chapter 2. The Physical and Interpretive Technique of Emanuel Feuermann. Brinton Smith, Doctoral Thesis 1998.
- ^ a b c How to Talk About Musical Metre. Justin London, 2006.
- ^ Thoughts on Tempi. Essays on the Origins of Western Music. David Whitwell.
[edit] External links
- PC Metronome - A commercial metronome for Windows, which simulates a digital metronome.
- Crystal Metronome - A commercial metronome for Windows.
- GiveMeTac! - A freeware metronome application for Windows.
- Pocket Beat - A visual metronome usable via peripheral vision; visual emphasis allows ignoring of the beat when desired. Currently requires Palm OS.
