pulse (music)

In music, a pulse is a series of identical, yet distinct periodic short-duration stimuli perceived as points in time (DeLone et al. (Eds.), 1975, chap. 3). Ideally, this is opposed to a series of identical but aperiodically occurring stimuli, a series of periodically occurring yet otherwise differentiated stimuli, or an uninterrupted stream of sound (such as a drone). A pulse may be an unheard event underlining a piece or metric level, thus the tempo of the piece is how fast the pulse is running, implied by the performer or listener based on context or past experience, or audible such as in Terry Riley's In C.
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