Performing Meter

This article makes a case for a motive-oriented approach to the performance of meter in posttonal music, first considering post-tonal adaptations of eighteenth-century motive-driven metric manipulations (Mirka 2009; Sullivan 2021a) and then considering more general instances of motivic repetition and imitation.The approach is initially framed in terms of a preference-rule theory of meter (Lerdahl and Jackendoff 1983) and then more fully in terms of focal impulse theory (Ito 2020).This article encourages a rethinking of traditional performance-analytic relationships, positioning a performance as the central mediator in an ongoing dialogue between performer and listener.Ambiguities in motive and meter complicate a motive-oriented performance practice while simultaneously creating interpretive room for the performer to shape a musical narrative.Finally, the motive-oriented approach is situated in a larger twentieth-century discourse about the rhythmic role of motivic repetition when such repetitions contradict the notated measure.Musical examples are drawn from works by Debussy, Schoenberg, Berg, Hindemith, Stravinsky, Penderecki, and Barber.