Conveners: Carmel Raz, Roger Mathew Grant, and Richard Cohn

The past several decades have witnessed an efflorescence of research on the temporal aspects of musical experience.  Rhythm and meter, once regarded as merely secondary parameters in comparison to pitch and harmony, are now central to the analysis and theory of music.  Nevertheless, the historical predecessors of our theoretical models remain understudied.  The “Histories of Modern Rhythmic Theory” Working Group aims to redress this imbalance.  Bringing empirical approaches together with historicist and analytical work, the working group cultivates new critical and comparative perspectives on historical rhythmic and metric theory.  Participants workshop new research, present formal papers, contribute to seminar discussions on primary sources, and plan publication projects with the aim of catalyzing new research in this emerging field.     

Events: 

March 14 —15, 2019: Workshop II, "Histories of Musical and Poetic Meter"

November 19 — 20, 2018: Workshop I, "Histories of Rhythmic Theory, 1600-present"