Metre
Organization of strong and weak beats.
What it means
Metre is the organization of strong and weak beats that underlies music as a regular grid. It arises when we group even beats, the pulse: every second, third or fourth beat feels stronger. From these groups the time signature is formed.
Metre is an order in the mind of the listener and performer and is not the same as the notes that actually sound. Rhythm, that is the concrete durations, can move against the metre with syncopations and displacements, and it is precisely this tension that makes it lively.
In the notation
In the notation, the time signature and barlines show the metre. The signature 4/4, for example, means four crotchet beats per bar with the strongest stress on beat one and a secondary stress on beat three.
Musical use
Almost all European musical styles from the baroque to pop rest on a continuous metre. In some kinds of music, such as Gregorian chant or free cadenzas, it is suspended. The term comes from ancient prosody, where it means the verse measure.
Metre should be distinguished from rhythm (the pattern of durations), from pulse (the steady basic beat) and from tempo (the speed of the pulse).
Performance practice
When practising, feel the metre even if a passage is rhythmically complicated. Keep counting the basic beats silently and relate every note to them. A metronome helps to make the grid audible.