Although it is widely accepted that the subject of accent is of general importance to theories of rhythm, there is considerable diversity and frequent contradiction among modern concepts of accent; there is little agreement about either a definition or a list of types. Furthermore, whilst there is Bruch of great value in modern accentology, none of the most important individual studies is wholly adequate. The broad explanatory context by which accent may be defined is metric theory, for accent is both a determinant and a function of metric structure. Ketric structure DUst necessarily be conceived as a genuinely temporal and context-sensitive process in which that which 'measures' is constantly redefined by that which is 'measured'. It therefore has both a time-span component and what may be called a 'phenomenal' component. An accent is a structural time-point; it is a time-point which is constituent of the highly specified hierarchy of metric structure. This is what the two main classes of accent, metric accent and phenomenal accent, have in common. These two classes of accent are distinct, however, in respect of their determinants and their functions. Whereas metric accents are determined by metric structure, phenomenal accents are determined by accentual events. With regard to their functions, metric accents structure coincident events, whereas phenomenal accents structure metre. Ketric accent has no sub-classes; all metric accents are of fundamentally the same kind. Phenomenal accent has eight sub-classes, each of which is defined by its determining event: attack accent, dynamic accent, initiative accent, agogic accent, tonal accent, terminative accent, registral accent, and associated accent. All of these classes logically follow from other components of the accentology and are intuitively demonstrable in especially composed musical examples.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:365520 |
| Date | January 2000 |
| Creators | Wolfe, Douglas M. |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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