The manner in which the duration of a piece of music is divided up over the course of time.

The manner in which the duration of a piece of music is divided up over the course of time is called Rhythm. Rhythm is the arrangement of sounds and silences in time. The time signature or meter specifies how many beats are in a measure, and which value of note is counted or felt as a single beat. Meter animates time in regular pulse groupings, called measures or bars, which in Western classical, popular and traditional music often group notes in sets of two (e. g., 2/4 time), three (e. g., 3/4 time, also known as Waltz time, or 3/8 time), or four (e. g., 4/4 time).

Through increased stress, or variations in duration or articulation, articular tones may be accented. in recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars.