tatum

English edit

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tatum

Etymology edit

Coined by American computer scientist Jeffrey A. Bilmes in 1993, initially as a blend of temporal +‎ atom, but deliberately changed from tatom to tatum to honor master jazz pianist Art Tatum, who was known for his exceptional celerity.^[1]

Pronunciation edit

IPA^(key): /ˈteɪtəm/, /ˈtætəm/, /ˈtɑːtəm/
Rhymes: -eɪtəm, -ætəm, -ɑːtəm

Noun edit

tatum (plural tatums)

The shortest statistically significant time interval between successive notes in a rhythmic phrase or a musical piece.
- 2006, Jarno Seppanen, Antti Eronen, Jarmo Hiipakka, “Joint Beat & Tatum Tracking from Music Signals”, in Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Music Information Retrieval (ISMIR 2006)‎^[2], Victoria, Canada, 8-12 October 2006: International Society for Music Information Retrieval, →DOI, archived from the original on 2024-03-19, page 1:
  In general, the music meter contains a nested grouping of pulses called metrical levels, where pulses on higher levels are subsets of the lower level pulses; the most salient level is known as the beat, and the lowest level is termed the tatum.
- 2023, Spotify, “Reference / Tracks / Get Track's Audio Analysis”, in Spotify for Developers - Web API Reference‎^[3], archived from the original on 2023-03-27:
  A tatum represents the lowest regular pulse train that a listener intuitively infers from the timing of perceived musical events (segments).

References edit

^ Bilmes, Jeffrey A. (1993) “Techniques to Foster Drum Machine Expressivity”, in Proceedings of the 1993 International Computer Music Conference, ICMC 93, September 10-15, 1993‎^[1], Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan: International Computer Music Association, archived from the original on 2024-03-19, pages 1-2:
When we listen to or perform music, we often perceive a high frequency pulse, frequently a binary, trinary, or quaternary subdivision of the musical tactus. What does it mean to perceive this pulse, or, as I will call it, tatum.
Perceiving the tatum does not necessarily imply a conscious ticking in the mind, like a clock. Often, it is an unconscious and intuitive pulse that can be brought into the foreground of one's thought when needed. Perceiving the tatum implies that the listener or performer is judging and anticipating musical events with respect to a high frequency pulse.
[...]
The tatum is not always explicitly stated in a piece of music. How, then, is it implied? The tatum is the lowest level of the metric musical hierarchy. Often, it is defined by the smallest time interval between successive notes in a rhythmic phrase. For example, two sixteenth notes followed by eighth notes would probably create a sixteenth note tatum.
[...]
When I asked Barry Vercoe if this concept had a term, he felicitously replied "Not until now. Call it temporal atom, or tatom." So, in honor of Art Tatum, whose tatum was faster than all others, I chose the word tatum.

[bilmes-1993-1] Bilmes, Jeffrey A. (1993) “Techniques to Foster Drum Machine Expressivity”, in Proceedings of the 1993 International Computer Music Conference, ICMC 93, September 10-15, 1993‎^[1], Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan: International Computer Music Association, archived from the original on 2024-03-19, pages 1-2:
When we listen to or perform music, we often perceive a high frequency pulse, frequently a binary, trinary, or quaternary subdivision of the musical tactus. What does it mean to perceive this pulse, or, as I will call it, tatum.
Perceiving the tatum does not necessarily imply a conscious ticking in the mind, like a clock. Often, it is an unconscious and intuitive pulse that can be brought into the foreground of one's thought when needed. Perceiving the tatum implies that the listener or performer is judging and anticipating musical events with respect to a high frequency pulse.
[...]
The tatum is not always explicitly stated in a piece of music. How, then, is it implied? The tatum is the lowest level of the metric musical hierarchy. Often, it is defined by the smallest time interval between successive notes in a rhythmic phrase. For example, two sixteenth notes followed by eighth notes would probably create a sixteenth note tatum.
[...]
When I asked Barry Vercoe if this concept had a term, he felicitously replied "Not until now. Call it temporal atom, or tatom." So, in honor of Art Tatum, whose tatum was faster than all others, I chose the word tatum.

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