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{{for|the medieval unit of time measurement|Moment (time)}}
{{for|the medieval unit of time measurement|Moment (time)}}


In [[music]] a '''time point''' or '''timepoint''' ([[point (geometry)|point]] in [[time]]) is "an instant, analogous to a geometrical point in space".<ref>Jonathan D. Kramer, ''The Time of Music: New Meanings, New Temporalities, New Listening Strategies'' (New York: Schirmer Books; London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1988): p.&nbsp;454. ISBN 0-02-872590-5.</ref> Because it has no duration, it literally cannot be heard, <ref>Kramer 1988, p.&nbsp;97</ref> but it may be used to represent "the point of initiation of a single pitch, the repetition of a pitch, or a pitch simultaneity",<ref name="Babbitt72">Milton Babbitt, "Twelve-Tone Rhythmic Structure and the Electronic Medium", ''Perspectives of New Music'' 1, no. 1 (Fall 1962): 49–79. Citation on p.72.</ref> therefore the beginning of a [[sound]], rather than its [[duration (music)|duration]]. Other terms often used in music theory and analysis are '''attack point'''<ref name="HillerFuller">Lejaren Hiller and Ramon Fuller, "Structure and Information in Webern’s Symphonie, Op. 21", ''Journal of Music Theory'' 11, no. 1 (Spring 1967): 60–115. Citation on p.&nbsp;94.</ref> and '''starting point'''.<ref>Hubert S. Howe, Jr., ''Electronic Music Synthesis: Concepts, Facilities, Techniques'' (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1975): p.&nbsp;28</ref> The distance from one time point, attack, or starting point to the next (which is independent of the durations of the sounding notes), is therefore called a '''time-point interval''',<ref name="Babbit67">Babbitt 1962, p.&nbsp;67.</ref> '''attack interval''',<ref name="HillerFuller"/> or (translating the German ''Einsatzabstand''), '''interval of entrance'''.<ref>Pascal Decroupet, "Rhythms—Durations—Rhythmic Cells—Groups, Concepts of Microlevel Time-Organisation in Serial Music and Their Consequences on Shaping Time on Higher Structural Levels", in ''Unfolding Time: Studies in Temporality in Twentieth-century Music'', Geschriften van het Orpheus Instituut 8, edited by Marc Delaere and Darla Crispin, 69–94 (Louvain: Leuven University Press, 2009): p.&nbsp;85. ISBN 9789058677358.</ref>
In [[music]] a '''time point''' or '''timepoint''' ([[point (geometry)|point]] in [[time]]) is "an instant, analogous to a geometrical point in space".<ref>Jonathan D. Kramer, ''The Time of Music: New Meanings, New Temporalities, New Listening Strategies'' (New York: Schirmer Books; London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1988): p.&nbsp;454. ISBN 0-02-872590-5.</ref> Because it has no duration, it literally cannot be heard, <ref>Kramer 1988, p.&nbsp;97</ref> but it may be used to represent "the point of initiation of a single pitch, the repetition of a pitch, or a pitch simultaneity",<ref name="Babbitt72">Milton Babbitt, "Twelve-Tone Rhythmic Structure and the Electronic Medium", ''Perspectives of New Music'' 1, no. 1 (Fall 1962): 49–79. Citation on p.72.</ref> therefore the beginning of a [[sound]], rather than its [[duration (music)|duration]]. Other terms often used in music theory and analysis are '''[[Attack (music)|attack point]]'''<ref name="HillerFuller">Lejaren Hiller and Ramon Fuller, "Structure and Information in Webern’s Symphonie, Op. 21", ''Journal of Music Theory'' 11, no. 1 (Spring 1967): 60–115. Citation on p.&nbsp;94.</ref> and '''starting point'''.<ref>Hubert S. Howe, Jr., ''Electronic Music Synthesis: Concepts, Facilities, Techniques'' (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1975): p.&nbsp;28</ref> The distance from one time point, attack, or starting point to the next (which is independent of the durations of the sounding notes), is therefore called a '''time-point interval''',<ref name="Babbit67">Babbitt 1962, p.&nbsp;67.</ref> '''attack interval''',<ref name="HillerFuller"/> or (translating the German ''Einsatzabstand''), '''interval of entrance'''.<ref>Pascal Decroupet, "Rhythms—Durations—Rhythmic Cells—Groups, Concepts of Microlevel Time-Organisation in Serial Music and Their Consequences on Shaping Time on Higher Structural Levels", in ''Unfolding Time: Studies in Temporality in Twentieth-century Music'', Geschriften van het Orpheus Instituut 8, edited by Marc Delaere and Darla Crispin, 69–94 (Louvain: Leuven University Press, 2009): p.&nbsp;85. ISBN 9789058677358.</ref>


==Interonset interval<!--[[Interonset interval]] redirects directly here.-->==
==Interonset interval<!--[[Interonset interval]] redirects directly here.-->==

Revision as of 06:20, 1 January 2014

For the medieval unit of time measurement, see Moment (time).

In music a time point or timepoint (point in time) is "an instant, analogous to a geometrical point in space".[1] Because it has no duration, it literally cannot be heard, [2] but it may be used to represent "the point of initiation of a single pitch, the repetition of a pitch, or a pitch simultaneity",[3] therefore the beginning of a sound, rather than its duration. Other terms often used in music theory and analysis are attack point[4] and starting point.[5] The distance from one time point, attack, or starting point to the next (which is independent of the durations of the sounding notes), is therefore called a time-point interval,[6] attack interval,[4] or (translating the German Einsatzabstand), interval of entrance.[7]

Interonset interval

Half time drum pattern: the first and second measures have identical time-point, attack, or interonset intervals (Playⓘ) and will sound identical given certain instrumentation and performance practices.

The corresponding term used in acoustics and audio engineering to describe the initiation of a sound is onset, and the interonset interval or IOI is the time between the beginnings or attack-points of successive events or notes, the interval between onsets, not including the duration of the events.[8] A variant of this term is interval of onset.[9]

For example, two sixteenth notes separated by dotted eighth rest, would have the same interonset interval as between a quarter note and a sixteenth note:

{ \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } c''16 r8. c''16 }


{ \new Staff \with { \remove "Time_signature_engraver" } c''4 c''16 }

The concept is often useful for considering rhythms and meters.[8]

Time-point sets

Division of the measure/chromatic scale, followed by pitch/time-point series. Playⓘ

In serial music a time-point set, proposed in 1962 by Milton Babbitt,[10] is a temporal order of pitches in a tone row which indicates the instants at which the notes start. This has certain advantages over a duration scale or row built from multiples of a unit,[11] derived from Olivier Messiaen.[12]

since duration is a measure of distance between time points, as interval is a measure of distance between pitch points, we begin by interpreting interval as duration. Then, pitch number is interpretable as the point of initiation of a temporal event, that is, as a time-point number.

— Milton Babbitt[10][13]

For example, a measure may be divided into twelve metrical positions. In 3/4 this equals sixteenth notes. The start of each position, or time point, may then be labeled, in order, 0-11. Pitches may then be assigned locations within measures according to their pitch set number, now their pitch/time-set number. In Babbitt's first example he shows subsequent numbers which ascend (0-11) as within the same measure (if four follows three it may sound immediately), and subsequent numbers which descend as in the following measure (if three follows four it must necessarily wait for the next appearance of time-point three).[13]

Babbitt uses time points in Partitions (1957), All Set (1957), and Post-Partitions (1966),[14] as well as in Phonemena (1969–70), String Quartets No. 3 (1969–70) and No. 4 (1970), Arie da capo (1974), My Ends Are My Beginnings (1978), and Paraphrases (1979).[15]

Charles Wuorinen has also developed an approach to the time-point system, which differs greatly from Babbitt's.[16]

Sources

  1. ^ Jonathan D. Kramer, The Time of Music: New Meanings, New Temporalities, New Listening Strategies (New York: Schirmer Books; London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1988): p. 454. ISBN 0-02-872590-5.
  2. ^ Kramer 1988, p. 97
  3. ^ Milton Babbitt, "Twelve-Tone Rhythmic Structure and the Electronic Medium", Perspectives of New Music 1, no. 1 (Fall 1962): 49–79. Citation on p.72.
  4. ^ a b Lejaren Hiller and Ramon Fuller, "Structure and Information in Webern’s Symphonie, Op. 21", Journal of Music Theory 11, no. 1 (Spring 1967): 60–115. Citation on p. 94.
  5. ^ Hubert S. Howe, Jr., Electronic Music Synthesis: Concepts, Facilities, Techniques (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1975): p. 28
  6. ^ Babbitt 1962, p. 67.
  7. ^ Pascal Decroupet, "Rhythms—Durations—Rhythmic Cells—Groups, Concepts of Microlevel Time-Organisation in Serial Music and Their Consequences on Shaping Time on Higher Structural Levels", in Unfolding Time: Studies in Temporality in Twentieth-century Music, Geschriften van het Orpheus Instituut 8, edited by Marc Delaere and Darla Crispin, 69–94 (Louvain: Leuven University Press, 2009): p. 85. ISBN 9789058677358.
  8. ^ a b London, Justin (2004). Hearing in Time: Psychological Aspects of Musical Meter, p.4. ISBN 0-19-516081-9.
  9. ^ John MacKay, “On the Perception of Density and Stratification in Granular Sonic Textures: An Exploratory Study”, Interface 13 (1984): 171–86. Citation on p. 185.
  10. ^ a b Babbitt, Milton (1962) "Twelve-tone Rhythmic Structure and the Electronic Medium", Perspectives of New Music 1, no. 1 (Fall): 49–79. Citation on p.63.
  11. ^ Roads, Curtis (2001). Microsound, p.74-8. Cambridge: MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-18215-7.
  12. ^ de Leeuw, Ton (2006). Music of the Twentieth Century, p.171. ISBN 9789053567654.
  13. ^ a b Taruskin, Richard (2009). The Oxford History of Western Music: Music in the Late Twentieth Century, p.166-167. ISBN 9780195384857.
  14. ^ Griffiths, Paul (1996). Modern Music and After, p.64. ISBN 9780198165118.
  15. ^ Mead, Andrew (1987) "About About Time's Time: A Survey of Milton Babbitt's Recent Rhythmic Practice", Perspectives of New Music 25, nos. 1-2 (Winter/Summer 1987): 182-235. Citations on pp.187–89, 192–93, 195–97, 200–205, 215, and 225–30.
  16. ^ Mead, Andrew (1987) "About About Time's Time: A Survey of Milton Babbitt's Recent Rhythmic Practice", Perspectives of New Music 25, nos. 1-2 (Winter/Summer 1987): 182-235. Citation on p.231n1.

Further reading

  • Johnson, William Marvin (1984). "Timepoint Sets and Meter". Perspectives of New Music 23, no. 1 (Fall-Winter): 278–97.
  • Oxford, Parncutt and Mc Pherson (ed.)(2002). The Science and Psychology of Music Performance, p. 200-202. ISBN 0-19-513810-4
  • Scotto, Ciro (1988). "Preparing a Performance of Babbitt's Arie da Capo". Perspectives of New Music 26, no. 2 (Summer): 6-24.
  • Wuorinen, Charles (1979). Simple Composition. New York: Longman.
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