Subject: Re: maximum tatum (one tatum, two tata) From: Fabien Gouyon <fgouyon(at)IUA.UPF.ES> Date: Wed, 10 Apr 2002 20:22:05 +0200Bruno Repp wrote: > A variety of phenomena have been mentioned in connection with the > "tatum", but has anyone given a clear definition of the tatum? Who > coined that term in the first place? I have encountered it only once > previously, in Vijay Iyer's dissertation. Is he the inventor of the > term? I believe the first one to use the term 'tatum' was Bilmes, in his master's thesis "Timing is of the essence: Perceptual and computational techniques for representing, learning, and reproducing expressive timing in percussive music" (MIT, 1993). p.22, he writes: "It is the lowest level of the metric musical hierarchy. We use it to judge the placement of all musical events." "Often, it is an illusory perception." "Often, it is defined by the smallest time interval between successive notes in a rhythmic phrase." This could be compared to a definition given by Schloss, in his PhD Thesis (p33) refering to Yeston's "attack-point": "Attack-point: distance (duration) between attacks, in term of the local unit." Bilmes also writes: "Other times, however, the tatum is not as apparent; then, it might best be described as that time division that most highly coincides with all note onsets." >From what I've read, there is no study regarding the perception of the Tatum. Should it be considered as a property of our perception or as a property of the signal? Bilmes argues the former by showing that transformations (i.e. deviations) achieved at that level are expressively relevant. ____________________________________________ Fabien Gouyon Music Technology Group IUA-UPF Barcelona http://www.iua.upf.es/~fgouyon tel : (00 34) 93 542 28 64 ____________________________________________