Principles of Rhythm

Rhythm is the timing and duration of the notes. In notation, pitches go up and down on the staff, but rhythms go from left to right. Thus pitch is the vertical element of music, while rhythm is the horizontal element.

In order to express rhythms in writing, we need three things:

a beat
a way of writing notes to show their relative durations, and
a time signature to define the relationship between the beat and the notated durations.

"Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilized into time and tune." - Thomas Fuller

"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music." - Aldous Huxley

"Music in the soul can be heard by the universe." - Lao Tzu

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy." - Ludwig van Beethoven

"Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue." - Plato

"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." - Victor Hugo

"Music is nothing else but wild sounds civilized into time and tune." - Thomas Fuller