Editing Duration (music)

{{Short description|Length of time which a note can last}}{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}
{{redirects|Duration scale (music)||Duration series}}
[[File:Characteristic rock drum pattern.png|thumb|right|300px|Simple [quadr]duple [[drum pattern]], against which duration is measured in much [[popular music]]: divides two [[beat (music)|beats]] into two {{Audio|Simple duple drum pattern.mid|Play}}.]]
[[File:Duration example with length, articulation, and pedal.png|thumb|right|300px|Various durations {{audio|Duration example with length, articulation, and pedal.mid|Play}}]]

In [[music]], '''duration''' is an amount of [[time]] or  how long or short a [[note (music)|note]], [[phrase (music)|phrase]], section, or [[musical composition|composition]] lasts. "''Duration'' is the length of time a pitch, or tone, is sounded."<ref>Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p.230. Seventh Edition. McGraw-Hill. {{ISBN|978-0-07-294262-0}}.</ref> A note may last less than a second, while a symphony may last more than an hour. One of the fundamental features of [[rhythm]], or encompassing rhythm, duration is also central to [[meter (music)|meter]] and [[musical form]]. [[Envelope (music)|Release]] plays an important part in determining the [[timbre]] of a musical instrument and is affected by [[articulation (music)|articulation]].

The concept of duration can be further broken down into those of [[beat (music)|beat]] and meter, where beat is seen as (usually, but certainly not always) a 'constant', and rhythm being longer, shorter or the same length as the beat. In [[serial music]] the beginning of a note may be considered, or its duration may be (for example, is a 6 the note which begins at the sixth beat, or which lasts six beats?).

Durations, and their beginnings and endings, may be described as long, short, or taking a specific amount of time. Often duration is described according to terms borrowed from descriptions of [[pitch (music)|pitch]]. As such, the ''duration [[Complement (music)|complement]]'' is the amount of different durations used, the '''duration scale''' is an ordering ([[Scale (measurement)|scale]]) of those durations from shortest to longest, the ''duration [[Range (music)|range]]'' is the difference in length between the shortest and longest, and the ''duration hierarchy'' is an ordering of those durations based on frequency of use.<ref>Winold, Allen (1975). "Rhythm in Twentieth-Century Music". ''Aspects of Twentieth-Century Music''. Delone and Wittlich (eds.). pp. 208–269. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall. {{ISBN|0-13-049346-5}}.</ref>

'''Durational patterns''' are the foreground details projected against a background [[metric structure]], which includes [[metre (music)|meter]], [[tempo]], and all rhythmic aspects which produce temporal regularity or structure. Duration patterns may be divided into [[rhythmic unit]]s and [[rhythmic gesture]]s (Winold, 1975, chap. 3). But they may also be described using terms borrowed from the [[metrical feet]] of poetry: [[Iamb (foot)|iamb]] (weak–strong), [[anapest]] (weak–weak–strong), [[trochee]] (strong–weak), [[dactyl (poetry)|dactyl]] (strong–weak–weak), and [[amphibrach]] (weak–strong–weak), which may overlap to explain ambiguity.<ref>Cooper and Meyer (1960). ''The Rhythmal Structure of Music'', {{page needed|date=October 2010}}. University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0-226-11522-4}}. Cited in Winold (1975, chapter three).</ref>

==See also==
*[[tuplet]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Rhythm and meter|state=expanded}}
{{Time Topics}}
{{Time measurement and standards}}

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[[Category:Elements of music]]
[[Category:Rhythm and meter]]