Manha De Carnival by Sigman and Bonfa
...ill find that there is a repeated pattern of accented (strong) and unaccented (weak) beats. What you have just done is discover the meter! Meter organizes stressed and unstressed sounds into units called measures. Each measure contains a combination of strong and weak beats that represent the underlying pulse of the music. Our nervous and muscular systems are stimulated by sound. Our bodies react spontaneously and automatically to the beat, which is usually the most noticeable component of music. If the beat is strong enough, and can be heard or felt, most people will have a natural tendency to clap their hands, tap their feet or move their head to go with the beat. Even babies respond naturally to beat and meter! That is, they will move on or to the beat. Reacting to the beat is more a matter of feeling it in the body than analyzing, hearing, or reading it from a music score. The beat is the most basic unit of musical time. Regularity of beat seems to be fundamental to our response to music. Once we detect it at the beginning of a song (or any other type of musical composition), we somehow expect that it will continue unchanged. Composers manipulate the speed of the beat to suit the emotional content of music. Just as in any other situation, increasing the beat rate (accelerando) usually creates an added tension. Decreasing tempo, or (ritardando), can, in some cases, release tension bringing a sense of conclusion, or as in the exam...