Effects of Parallelism on Meter and Grouping

Abstract Parallelism—pattern repetition—is an important part of Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff’s rhythmic theory, but they treat it only very briefly. In this essay, I offer a more rigorous account of how parallelism affects meter and grouping. Parallelism influences meter directly (though only the periods of metrical levels, not their phases); it also influences grouping directly, due to our search for an efficient encoding in which groups align with iterations of a pattern and larger groups combine successive iterations. The preference for strong beats to occur early in groups then gives rise to further, indirect effects of parallelism on meter: a tendency to hear the strongest beat early in a repeated motive, and a tendency to place the strongest beat in a series of consecutive iterations of a pattern within the first occurrence of the pattern. These effects are illustrated with examples from the common-practice repertoire.