The fundamental element is "time" as we know it in
music. In music every bar has just so much time allotted to it,
but that time may be variously divided up between different notes.
Thus, suppose the bar is based on the time required for one full note.
We may have in place of one full note two half notes or four quarter
notes, or a half note lengthened by half and followed by two eight
notes, or two quarter notes followed by a half note, and so on.
The total time remains the same, but it may be variously divided,
though not without reference to the way in which other bars in the same
piece of music are divided.
We will drop music and continue our illustration by reference to English
poetry. In trochaic meter we have an accented syllable followed by an
unaccented, and in dactylic we have an accented syllable followed by two
unaccented syllables, as for instance in the following:
Trochaic---
"In' his cham'ber, weak' and dy'ing,
Was' the Nor'man bar'on ly'ing."
Dactylic--
"This' is the for'est prime'val.
The mur'muring pines' and the hem'locks . . .
Stand' like Dru'ids of eld'.
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