Transcription de la pulsation, de la metrique et du "rhythme libre" [Transcription of the pulse, meter, and "free rhythm"]

Collection title: Cahiers de musiques traditionnelles. XII (1999): Noter la musique Analyzes in detail two examples of transcription of monophonic music with complex rhythmic strata that interact in subtle and fluid ways: , a partially improvised Hungarian traditional song of the genre practiced chiefly in Transylvania, and the benediction section of the , an Ashkenazi prayer celebrating the exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. The Western transcriber attempts to decompose the perceived aural complex into constituents that can be grasped and integrated as a single dimension readily captured in notation. But the enterprise can have only limited success, for at bottom there is an abiding contradiction between the pluridimensionality of oral tradition and the unidimensional nature of script. It would be the same were one to attempt to capture every aspect of a spoken language with written symbols.