Ritmo não-pulsante: ausência de sensação de pulsação no repertório do século XX

Abstract

Allen Winold's and Howard Smither’s concepts of unusual metric structure with obscured pulse and nonmetrical rhythm with free accentuation and absence of perceptible beat are attempts to characterize and reflect on new methods of structuring durations that emerge from intense musical experimentation in the twentieth-century. This research aims to improve knowledge of the absence of pulse sensation in music, or nonpulsed rhythm; as well as to explore which performers’ decisions enunciate or not pulse sensation for the listener; and finally to identify whether the attempt to build the nonpulsed rhythm in some twentiethcentury works is linked to a specific aesthetic movement. The first stage of the research consisted of revising the definitions of fundamental terms to approach pulse: pulse, beat, accent, metric and rhythm; using as theoretical basis the theories of Cooper and Meyer, Simha Arom, Joel Lester, Lerdahl and Jackendoff. In the second stage we tried to expand the discussion that Winold and Smither did about nonpulsed rhythm, selecting music theory researchers such as Bryan Simms and Leon Dallin; and composers who thought of new conceptions of rhythm and metric structure in twentieth-century music, such as John Cage and Pierre Boulez. In the third stage, two musical analysis were performed focusing on the interaction between the concept of nonpulsed rhythm, musical listening and performance of notated music.