Rhythm (from Greek ῥυθμός, rhythmos, "any regular recurring motion, symmetry" ()) generally means a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions" (, 2537). This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time can apply to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or frequency of anything from microseconds to several minutes or hours, or, at the most extreme, even over many years. In the performance arts rhythm is the timing of events on a human scale; of musical sounds and silences, of the steps of a dance, or the meter of spoken language and poetry. Rhythm may also refer to visual presentation, as "timed movement through space" (,) and a common language of pattern unites rhythm with geometry. In recent years, rhythm and meter have become an important area of research among music scholars. Recent work in these areas includes books by Maury , Fred Lerdahl and Ray Jackendoff (), Jonathan Kramer, Christopher , Godfried , William , and Joel Lester (). In Thinking and Destiny, Harold W. Percival defined rhythm as the character and meaning of thought expressed through the measure or movement in sound or form, or by written signs or words (, 1006).

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