Combining speculative, psychological, and music-theoretical perspectives, and drawing on modern process philosophy, Hasty integrates technical analytical details with larger aesthetic issues. The book begins with a historical survey of rhythmic theory that explains the traditional opposition of meter and rhythm and traces the expressions of this opposition in theories from the 18th century to the present.

Part II systematically develops a fully temporal theory of meter that engages a variety of interpretive possibilities open to the performer. Here analyses of music from the early 17th century to the mid-20th century demonstrate the explanatory power of the theory and address broader issues of musical rhythm. The concluding chapters open the theory to more general questions of musical experience and its theoretical representation.

Written for theorists and musicologists interested in questions of rhythm, meter, and time, Meter as Rhythm will also be of great interest to amateur musicians in fields such as cognitive theory, aesthetics, and process philosophy, as well as to the intellectually adventurous performer.