ABSTRACT
In Chapter 2, we learned how to segment music based primarily on pitch and textural criteria. Where melodic groupings are concerned, rhythm and contour are also among the most important means for parsing music into meaningful units. Indeed, the repetition of patterns of rhythm and contour alone can be enough to create perceptual groupings. Yet, rhythm and contour are typically communicated by means of pitches. In reality, then, all these elements reinforce each other within our holistic experience of music. We have already seen, for example, how pitch intervals and contours often combine to form ordered pitch interval motives. How rhythm merges with our understanding of pitch material will be explored more fully in the next chapter.
