Dispersed Meter in Elizabethan Polyphony

Elizabethan untexted polyphony contains episodes of extreme rhythmic complexity, which suggest multiple and simultaneously conflicting metrical organizations between the individual parts, often without notated mensuration changes.Using techniques such as ternary regrouping (within a predominantly binary metrical environment) and displacement of ternary groups, composers were able to generate as many as four or five competing metrical realities among the different voices.These episodes of "dispersed meter" shed light on how metrical structures arise and function within Renaissance polyphony.They also offer an opportunity to take a more pluralistic view of metrical experience and the ways in which various views of meter can emerge within an ensemble performance.Focusing on the individual experience of meter from a first-person perspective, this article endeavors to align the analysis with the culture of partbook reading cultivated in Elizabethan England, pointing the way toward new theories of meter that center the perspectives of musicians rather than listeners.