Musical Meter as Shape: An Embodied Perspective on Metrical Trajectories and Curves

The perception of musical rhythm includes not only the sonic rhythm but also the endogenous reference structures, such as meter. Musical meter is often described and understood as points in time or durations between such points. In this chapter, I argue that musical meter also has a shape. I propose that we perceive and make sense of musical meter based on our previous musical experiences involving meter-related bodily motion. In other words, the meter-related motion is integral to the perceived meter—they are the same. Meter thus has a shape that relates to the embodied sensations of these movements. Also crucial is the notion that musical meter is conditioned by musical culture. This perspective on meter as shape is highly influenced by Godøy’s motor-mimetic perspective on music perception and musical shape cognition and concurs with the multimodal approach to sonic design that acknowledges motion as intrinsic to music performance and perception.