Cell (music)

The 1957 Encyclopédie Larousse[1] defines a cell in music as a "small rhythmic and melodic design that can be isolated, or can make up one part of a thematic context." The cell may be distinguished from the figure or motif: the 1958 Encyclopédie Fasquelle[1] defines a cell as, "the smallest indivisible unit," unlike the motif, which may be divisible into more than one cell. "A cell can be developed, independent of its context, as a melodic fragment, it can be used as a developmental motif. It can be the source for the whole structure of the work; in that case it is called a generative cell."[2]

Tresillo, a rhythmic cell of the tango and habanera.[3][4]  Play 

A rhythmic cell is a cell without melodic connotations. It may be entirely percussive or applied to different melodic segments.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 quoted in Nattiez, Jean-Jacques (1990). Music and Discourse: Toward a Semiology of Music (Musicologie générale et sémiologue, 1987). Translated by Carolyn Abbate (1990). ISBN 0-691-02714-5.
  2. ↑ Nattiez 1990, p.156.
  3. ↑ Garrett, Charles Hiroshi (2008). Struggling to Define a Nation: American Music and the Twentieth Century, p.54. ISBN 9780520254862. Shown in common time and then in cut time with tied sixteenth & eighth note rather than rest.
  4. ↑ Sublette, Ned (2007). Cuba and Its Music, p.134. ISBN 978-1-55652-632-9. Shown with tied sixteenth & eighth note rather than rest.
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