Metrical Grid Research Articles

Das Quelle-Fertighaus

Abstract The steel prefabricated family house ›Quelle-Fertighaus‹ designed and constructed by the German company Quelle, is an innovative modular system commercialised in 1962. All aspects of the Quelle-Fertighaus are planned on the principle of minimal effort for maximal flexibility. The clever design of the ground plan based on a 4 m × 7 m module offers the flexibility for either one to three additional modules. The steel construction is innovative and unique, consisting of load-bearing portal frames acting as braces. The house design is furthermore characterised by a simple metrical grid layout and the practical placement of the foundation and basement, which allowed the very cost-effective production and the lowest price for a prefabricated family house in Germany during the postwar era. Nowadays its portal-frame-construction offers an interesting approach for its renovation and transformation according to present building demands.

Syllable Isochrony in Selected Nigerian Hip-Hops: Implication for Nigerian English Pedagogy

Scholarly attention, especially in the context of rhythmic patterns of Nigerian Hip-hop and implication for Nigerian English pedagogy has been very rare. Hence, the study inquires into whether or not Nigeria Hip-Hop could be an alternative medium to teaching English rhythm in Nigerian schools, especially due to its influx on Nigerian youths, and thereby improve on the pronunciation of L2 learners/speakers. The study sampled four songs from two artists’ rhythmic patterns - Temilade Openiyi (TEMS) and Adedamola Adefolahan (Fireboy DML). The lyrical lines of the selected songs were analysed using metrical grid; an aspect of metrical phonology) to establish the isochronic patterns in the sampled Nigerian Hip-hop songs through segmentation of selected lines of the lyrics in order to establish whether or not divergence or convergence exist in the rhythm patterns of selected Nigerian Hip-hop as noticed in Standard English songs. Boersma and Weenink (2010), software tool for speech signal editing and labeling, this was evident in the following instances://aɪ////keɪm// //ˈsɔːdɪnlɪ:// realised at equal timing of 0.2886 milliseconds (ms). //aɪ həv bɪn kɪlɪŋ// //ˈɛvriˌθɪŋ// at 0.1904ms. //aɪ/ //əm// //ə////kɪŋ// at 0.2251ms; //juː// //dəʊnt// //fiːl// at 0.2901ms; //aɪ// //wɪʃ// //aɪ// //kʊd// //fiːl// //jɔː// //peɪn// at 0.210ms; //aɪ// //traɪd// //tu// //tiːtʃ// //ˈjuː// at 0.3071ms; //aɪ// //wɪl/ /maɪnd/ //maɪ// //mænəs// at 0.310ms; //fɪə// //ɪn// // mai// //maɪnd// /ɪz/ //ə// //ˈwɔːnɪŋ// at 0.215ms; //aɪ// //sɛd// //faɪv// //ɪn ðiː// //ˈmɔrnɪŋ// at 0.234ms; //fɪə// //ɪn// // mai// //maɪnd// /ɪz/ //ə// //ˈwɔːnɪŋ// at 0.3092ms; //aɪ ˈtraɪ tu// //ˈgɛt baɪ// //bʌt aɪm ˈbɜːnɪŋ// at 0.2967ms; //sɛnd// //miː// //a// //lʌv// //ðæt// //juː// //kænɒt// //mɪz// at 0.214ms; //aɪ// //wɪl/ /maɪnd/ //maɪ// //mænəs// realised at 0.221ms; //wəʊnt// //teɪk// //ədˈvɑːntɪdʒ// at 0.318; and //nəʊ// //mɔ// //dæmeidʒɪs// //naʊ// realised at 0.2011ms. This means the syllables were realised at relatively equal timing. The study concludes that there is a divergence in the rhythm patterns of Nigerian Hip-hop which makes it significantly different from Standard British English rhythm structure. This implies that the Nigerian Hip-hop rhythm tilts more towards syllable-timing than stress-timing as earlier posited by Nigerian linguists hence may not be appropriate to teach rhythm in Nigerian schools due to its inability to meet national, international and social acceptability standard.

Hidden colouration: deep metrical flexibility in Machaut

ABSTRACTThis article introduces a metrical adaptation to the contrapunctus method of pitch reduction commonly used to analyse Ars Nova counterpoint. Expanding the medieval concept of colouration from the mensural to the metrical, my contrapuncti highlight the flexible toggling between perfect and imperfect groupings at various rhythmic levels in selected motets by Guillaume de Machaut (c.1300–77). The viewpoint advanced here assumes no a priori metrical grid to parse the musical surface, but rather allows the articulation of sonority, cadence and form to reveal a fluid and unique metrical grouping structure for each piece. With metrical emphases shown as inextricable from contrapuntal and harmonic ones, the metrical contrapunctus captures a more comprehensive picture of Machaut's musical language.

Syllable weight and natural duration in textsetting popular music in English

Hayes & Kaun (1996) argue that the mapping of syllables onto a metrical grid in textsetting is sensitive to natural duration, not just categorical weight (heavy or light). Most of their evidence, however, derives the final lengthening effects, which admit of another possible analysis (Halle 2004). Drawing on a corpus of 2,371 popular songs in English, I confirm that even when one controls for final lengthening and other factors, the setting of syllables to a discrete grid is sensitive to natural duration. Moreover, onset effects reveal that the domain of weight for textsetting is not the syllable, rime, or vowel-to-vowel interval, but rather the interval between p-centers (perceptual centers). Finally, I argue that the textsetting grammar invokes both natural duration and categorical weight; weight mapping cannot be reduced to one or the other.

Mapping timing and intensity strategies in drum-kit performance of a simple back-beat pattern

ABSTRACT We explored how drummers express a ‘back-beat’ pattern with different timing styles (laid-back, on-beat, pushed) via stroke onset and intensity features. Based on hierarchical clustering analyses and phylogenetic trees, we found three main strategies: (1) ‘general earliness/lateness’, where most instruments are consistently played earlier/later in time relative to a metrical grid; (2) ‘early/late flam’, where at least one instrument is played as a flam; and (3) ‘ambiguously early/late compound sound’, where in a dyad, one instrument is played synchronously with the grid, and the other early/late. Intensity strategies were not used uniformly to exclusively distinguish between laid-back/pushed and on-beat timing.

Metrical Structure and Licensing: An Argument from Ukrainian

It has been debated in phonological literature whether word stress should be modeled using metrical grids or feet and how its directionality is assigned. In this article, we discuss new data from Ukrainian, which has a hybrid metrical system with unpredictable lexical stress and grammatical iterative secondary stress. We demonstrate that Ukrainian poses a challenge for current metrical theories relying on gradient alignment and propose an analysis based on categorical alignment coupled with a rhythmic licensing constraint mandating that lapses are located near the main stress (LAPSE-AT-PEAK). We argue that LAPSE-AT-PEAK is required regardless of the stress representations (feet or grids) assumed.

STRESS CLASH RESOLUTION IN ENGLISH AS L1 AND L2

This paper aims to analyze which strategy speakers of English as L1 and Brazilian speakers of English as L2 use to solve stress clash, a phenomenon in which two syllables bearing primary stress are adjacent in different words forming a phonological phrase such as [thirteen men]. The representation of stress clash, as well as the operation that allows its undoing, is one of the justifications whereby Liberman & Prince (1977) propose the metrical grid. The clash depends on information about the metrical level in which it occurs. The simple phonetic adjacency is not enough to characterize a clash. This paper is based on the work of Pike (1945), Selkirk (1984), Major (1985) to show distinctions between language types of rhythm (stress/syllable-timed ones) as well as a non-categorical polarization for rhythm in languages (Barbosa, 2000, 2002) and Silva Jr, (2013), Fragozo (2017) when comparing native and Brazilian speakers of English for the choice of stress clash solving strategies. For the Methods, we have done acoustic analysis of what we extracted and normalized the vowel duration values and applied to a statistical analysis using ANOVA test to check the degree of variance between Brazilians and native speakers of English. Our results show that native and Brazilian speakers of English use distinct strategies to solve stress clash: the former using stress retraction, which undoes primary stress clashes by moving the first stress of the clash to the left and the latter using silent demibeat addition, inserting a short pause in between the clash environment.

Branchingness constraints on heads and dependents in Munster Irish stress

This paper readdresses the bounds between rhythm and constituency. It argues in favor of an arboreal representation of the metrical grid in which both metrical prominence, that is, grid marks, and prosodic categories are conflated into the same dimension even at the level of the syllable. These constituentized metrical grids are subject to branchingness constraints on heads and dependents. The research focus is on Munster Irish stress, which illustrates an intricate system of stress assignment. Stress in Munster Irish is assigned to the first syllable in strings containing light (L) syllables, ˈLLLL. Sequences of a H syllable followed by a L syllable always attract primary stress to the H syllable regardless of the position of the sequence within the phonological string, ˌLLLˈHL (cf. ˈLLLˌHH). These facts suggest that uneven trochees (ˈHL) always attract primary stress and therefore might exist as a legitimate metrical grouping. Initial primary stress is also avoided if the third syllable counting from the left edge of the word is H. Thus, a word like /LLH/ is parsed with optional initial secondary stress and primary stress on the H syllable, ˌLLˈH (cf. ˈLLLˌH). The contrast between ˌLLˈH and ˈLLLˌH suggests that some kind of trimoraic constituent determining the location of word stress is necessary.

What musicians do to induce the sensation of groove in simple and complex melodies, and how listeners perceive it.

Groove is the experience of wanting to move when hearing music, such as snapping fingers or tapping feet. This is a central aspect of much music, in particular of music intended for dancing. While previous research has found considerable consistency in ratings of groove across individuals, it remains unclear how groove is induced, that is, what are the physical properties of the acoustic signal that differ between more and less groove-inducing versions. Here, we examined this issue with a performance experiment, in which four musicians performed six simple and six complex melodies in two conditions with the intention of minimizing and maximizing groove. Analyses of rhythmical and temporal properties from the performances demonstrated some general effects. For example, more groove was associated with more notes on faster metrical levels and syncopation, and less groove was associated with deadpan timing and destruction of the regular pulse. We did not observe that deviations from the metrical grid [i.e., micro-timing (MT)] were a predictor of groove. A listener experiment confirmed that the musicians' manipulations had the intended effects on the experience of groove. A Brunswikian lens model was applied, which estimates the performer-perceiver communication across the two experiments. It showed that the communication achievement for simple melodies was 0.62, and that the matching of performers' and listeners' use of nine rhythmical cues was 0.83. For complex melodies with an already high level of groove, the corresponding values were 0.39 and 0.34, showing that it was much more difficult to “take out” groove from musical structures designed to induce groove.

A Quantification of The Rhythmic Qualities of Salience and Kinesis

Abstract From a cognitive point of view, it is easily perceived that some music rhythmic structures are able to create saliences (i.e. pulses perceived as louder). Depending where in a metrical grid these salient pulses are located, a sense of stability or instability will arise. When instability is present in a rhythmic structure one will tend to psychological feel kinesis (i.e. a sense of motion). Salience and kinesis can then be identified as basic rhythmic qualities. Inspired by the theoretical construct Just in Time - an empirical based music theoretical construct for the analysis of rhythm - we decided to quantify some of its analytical output; more specifically the measure of salience and kinesis of a rhythmic sequence. We then developed a web-based tool that calculates the amount of salience and kinesis for a particular rhythmic sequence. We conclude this article pointing how this tool can be used in analysis and music education as well as other possible applications, and future research.

Optimality Theoretic Representation of Stress in Cairene Arabic

Stress pattern of Cairene Arabic (CA) has played a major role in the development of stress placement theory. Syllable weight plays a role, however, the weight to stress principle does not always apply. Bimodality of a foot is very important and is largely addressed in the literature. Stress in CA is described in the literature as Moraic Trochee, but primary stress is on one of the three leftmost syllables. Many studies investigated primary stress in CA. These studies employed different theoretic formulations based on the segmental rules, the metrical phonological tree, and the metrical phonological grid. Notwithstanding, no recent study has translated the findings of the aforementioned literature into an Optimality Theoretic Constraints framework. The present paper attempts to accomplish this feat. The paper also presents a new set of data based on CA spoken language.

Aquisição, afasia e a hierarquia prosódica

Studies on language acquisition have shown that the child exhibits a top-down trajectory in the acquisition of the prosodic hierarchy, starting with the organisation of the upper (intonational) prosodic levels. Rhythmic readjustments and postlexical secondary stress are later acquisitions. Prosodic disturbances of aphasia and dysarthria have been connected to the question of brain-damage lateralisation and linguistic processing. Subjects damaged in their right hemisphere are said to be dysprosodic; they produce few Fo variations, Fo flattenning, slow tempo. Prosody is said to be reasonably preserved in Broca´s subjects and well preserved in fluent (Wernicke) aphasia subjects. A comparative study was carried out with two subjects, one aphasic and one dysarthric. Some prosodic difficulties were observed in the speech of fluent aphasic subjects, related to the prosodic hierarchy, to the metrical grid and to syllable structure, respectively. On the other hand, the correct placement of pauses in the frontiers of upper domains of the dysarthric subject shows preservation of the prosodic hierarchy. Pitch-direction is also preserved, with short pitch-range. In both cases, the upper domains of the prosodic hierarchy are preserved.

Modeling the tendency for music to induce movement in humans: First correlations with low-level audio descriptors across music genres.

Groove is often described as the experience of music that makes people tap their feet and want to dance. A high degree of consistency in ratings of groove across listeners indicates that physical properties of the sound signal contribute to groove (Madison, 2006). Here, correlations were assessed between listeners' ratings and a number of quantitative descriptors of rhythmic properties for one hundred music examples from five distinct traditional music genres. Groove was related to several different rhythmic properties, some of which were genre-specific and some of which were general across genres. Two descriptors corresponding to the density of events between beats and the salience of the beat, respectively, were strongly correlated with groove across domains. In contrast, systematic deviations from strict positions on the metrical grid, so-called microtiming, did not play any significant role. The results are discussed from a functional perspective of rhythmic music to enable and facilitate entrainment and precise synchronization among individuals.

Parallels and Nonparallels between Language and Music

THE PARALLELS BETWEEN LANGUAGE AND MUSIC CAN BE explored only in the context of (a) the differences between them, and (b) those parallels that are also shared with other cognitive capacities. The two differ in many aspects of structure and function, and, with the exception of the metrical grid, all aspects they share appear to be instances of more general capacities.

Tracking an Imposed Beat within a Metrical Grid

RHYTHMIC STRUCTURE OFTEN FAVORS a particular beat that is marked by frequent tone onsets and grouping accents. Using rhythms similar to those of Povel and Essens (1985), we asked musically trained participants to tap on physically or mentally imposed beats that either coincided with the favored beat or were phase-shifted relative to it. Surprisingly, tapping was equally stable. Actually, variability tended to be lowest when the imposed beat was in anti-phase with the favored beat; however, this tendency was reversed when participants were instructed to tap in anti-phase with the beat. These results demonstrate that precise on-beat synchronization with different imposed beats can be achieved by locking into the metrical grid defined by a rhythm's basic pulse. The favored beat provides the most stable reference for off-beat tapping but not necessarily for onbeat tapping, which relies to a greater extent on intervening rhythm tones as temporal references.

A Maximum Entropy Model of Phonotactics and Phonotactic Learning

The study of phonotactics is a central topic in phonology. We propose a theory of phonotactic grammars and a learning algorithm that constructs such grammars from positive evidence. Our grammars consist of constraints that are assigned numerical weights according to the principle of maximum entropy. The grammars assess possible words on the basis of the weighted sum of their constraint violations. The learning algorithm yields grammars that can capture both categorical and gradient phonotactic patterns. The algorithm is not provided with constraints in advance, but uses its own resources to form constraints and weight them. A baseline model, in which Universal Grammar is reduced to a feature set and an SPE-style constraint format, suffices to learn many phonotactic phenomena. In order for the model to learn nonlocal phenomena such as stress and vowel harmony, it must be augmented with autosegmental tiers and metrical grids. Our results thus offer novel, learning-theoretic support for such representations. We apply the model in a variety of learning simulations, showing that the learned grammars capture the distributional generalizations of these languages and accurately predict the findings of a phonotactic experiment.

Processing of Rhythmic and Melodic Gestalts—An ERP Study

In two experiments with event-related potentials (ERPs), we investigated the formation of auditory Gestalts. For this purpose, we used tone sequences of different structure. In the first experiment, we contrasted a rhythmic section to a section with random time values, each embedded in rhythmically irregular context. In the second experiment, melodies were contrasted to randomized sequences. Nonmusicians either had to detect the rhythmic pattern or to memorize short tone excerpts. Random versions in both experiments evoked a significant increase in the amplitude of P1 and P2. Randomized rhythm sections also evoked a late sustained negative potential. The enlarged P1 and P2 for random sequences might reflect stronger integration effort, as the predictability of tone progression was low. Thus, already at the early stage of encoding, sequence processing might be top-down-driven. The late negativity for rhythmically random sections is possibly task-related, reflecting expectancy violation in terms of regularity, since a metrical grid of beats could not be established. The memorizing of tone excerpts did not evoke a late neural correlate. (169)

Perceptual Smoothness of Tempo in Expressively Performed Music

Perceptual Smoothness of Tempo in Expressively Performed Music

Metrical phonology in HPSG

This paper proposes a new approach to the prosody-syntax interface in HPSG. Previous approaches to prosody in HPSG (Klein, 2000; Haji-Abdolhosseini, 2003) represent prosodic information by constructing metrical constituent structure in the tradition of (Selkirk, 1980; Liberman and Prince, 1977). One drawback of this approach is that it does not allow for a direct representation of purely metrical constraints, which are relegated to an unformalized performance component. By contrast, so called 'grid only' approaches (Prince, 1983; Selkirk, 1984; Delais-Roussarie, 2000) use a single data structure, a metrical grid, to encode prosodic constraints resulting from syntax and constraints of a rhythmic nature. We first review relevant data from French showing that prosodic constituency is much less constrained by syntactic structure than is predicted by existing approaches. In all but very short utterances, many different prosodic groupings are possible for a given sentence with a determinate information structure, and rhythmic factors determine a preference ordering on the possible groupings. We then present an HPSG implementation of the metrical grid, and propose minimal syntactic constraints on relative prominence, leaving room for noncategorical rythmic constraints to choose between alternatives. We finish by discussing the interaction of the metrical grid with the rest of the prosodic grammar.

Unified representations for stress and the syllable

We argue that there is no need to split phonological representations into two worlds: one syllabic and another in which word stress is calculated. We show that both syllable- and stress-related phenomena can be accounted for with a single set of representations, if traditional syllabic analysis is modified in one central respect: what is traditionally taken to be a coda–onset cluster is interpreted as two independent onsets enclosing an empty nucleus. Accordingly, our proposal may be understood as a development of the idea that underlies classical metrical grids, i.e. that stress-relevant units project to higher levels and are therefore visible for stress. The units in the proposal made here, however, are uniformly nuclei. Contentful nuclei are always projected, while their empty counterparts (i.e. codas in traditional approaches) may or may not be. The weightlessness of onsets directly follows from this approach.