A composer has a two-measure rhythmic motive with the pattern: quarter, eighth, eighth, half. She applies augmentation (doubling all values). What is the result?
Think about your answer, then reveal below.
Model answer: The augmented pattern is: half, quarter, quarter, whole. Each note value is doubled. The original two-measure motive now spans four measures. The proportional relationships between the notes are preserved.
Augmentation doubles every note value proportionally. Quarter becomes half, eighth becomes quarter, half becomes whole. The figure's internal rhythmic relationships (short-short-long, in this case) remain identical — only its time scale changes. This is why augmented material remains recognizable even as it expands to occupy more formal space.
Question 2 Multiple Choice
Metric displacement takes a rhythmic figure and does what to it?
AInverts the order of its note values (retrograde rhythm)
BShifts the figure's position within the measure, placing its accents off the expected beat
CDoubles all note values while preserving proportions
DRemoves notes from the figure to create a simpler variant
Metric displacement moves the onset of a rhythmic figure to a different position in the metric grid. A figure that originally fell on beat 1 might be displaced to begin on the 'and' of 2, so its accents now conflict with the underlying pulse. The figure itself is unchanged — same note values, same proportions — but its relationship to the meter shifts, creating cross-rhythmic tension.