Sound II Reading

1.2. Duration

Duration

Humans perceive time as duration. We cannot accurately judge time increments without a reference time unit. Regular time reference units are found in musical contexts. The underlying metric pulse of a piece of music allow for accurate duration perception. In music the listeners remembers the relative duration value of successive sounds. These successive durations create musical rhythm.

The listener is only able to establish a metric pulse within certain limits. Humans can accurately perceive metric pulse between 30 to 260 pulse per minute (or more commonly, bpm – beats per minute). Beyond these boundaries, we will instead replace the pulse with a duration of either one-half or twice the value, or the listener might just become confused and be unable to make sense of the rhythmic activity.