Rhythm, metre and tempo: note values, simple and compound time, syncopation, dotted and triplet rhythms, cross-rhythm and polyrhythm, ostinato, rubato and tempo markings.

What this dot point is asking

Rhythm, metre and tempo are core elements of the Component 1 appraising toolkit, tested in the Section A listening questions and supporting the Section B essay. AQA wants you to read and describe note values, recognise simple and compound time and syncopation, identify dotted, triplet, cross- and polyrhythms, ostinati and rubato, and use tempo markings correctly when analysing set works and unfamiliar extracts.

Metre and time signatures

The fastest way to hear simple versus compound is to count the smallest steady subdivision under the main beat. If each beat naturally splits into two even parts, the metre is simple; if it splits into a lilting group of three, it is compound. So six-eight has two dotted-crotchet beats, each dividing into three quavers, which is why a jig or a barcarolle has its characteristic sway. Metres are also classified by the number of beats in a bar: duple (two), triple (three) and quadruple (four). Asymmetric or irregular metres such as five-four (heard famously in Holst and in Brubeck's jazz) and seven-eight group the bar unevenly, often as two plus three or three plus two, and are common in Balkan and other traditional music as well as twentieth-century concert music.

Rhythmic features

Other examinable features each have a precise meaning. A dotted rhythm pairs a long, dotted note with a short one (a long-short lilt, as in a Baroque French overture). A triplet squeezes three even notes into the time of two, briefly contradicting a simple subdivision. A cross-rhythm sets one regular pattern against another, classically two against three, so two even beats sound at the same time as three. A polyrhythm layers several independent patterns at once and is a feature of much African and fusion music. A hemiola is a temporary regrouping, most often three bars of two heard as two bars of three (or the reverse), beloved of Baroque cadences and of Romantic composers such as Brahms. An ostinato is a short rhythmic or melodic figure repeated persistently, used to build drive or hypnotic tension. A driving rhythm, by contrast, simply means continuous, energetic note values that propel the music.

Tempo

Tempo is the speed of the music, marked with Italian terms or beats per minute. Learn the common markings in order: Largo and Adagio (very slow and slow), Andante (a walking pace), Moderato, Allegro (fast and lively) and Presto (very fast). Changes of tempo are themselves examinable: accelerando (gradually speeding up), ritardando or rallentando (gradually slowing), a tempo (return to the original speed) and rubato (flexible, expressive give-and-take of time within a phrase, central to Romantic performance). Beats per minute give an exact tempo and appear in pop and media scores where a click track keeps the pulse fixed.