Metre (music)
（重定向自Polymeter）
0157.jpg")
![Metric levels: beat level shown in middle with division levels above and multiple levels below.](/Images/godic/202502/03/Metric_levels.svg0157.png")
![A German children's song shows a common fourfold multiplication of rhythmic phrases into a complete verse and melody. Play](/Images/godic/202502/03/3Chinesen0158.png")
![A sequence of steps laid against the typical rhythm of the gavotte. Stylised folk-dances from all over Europe lent their characteristic metres to the Baroque suite.](/Images/godic/202502/03/Orchesographie_gavotte0158.gif")
The metre (Am. meter) of music is its rhythmic structure, the patterns of accents heard in regularly recurring measures of stressed and unstressed beats (arsis and thesis) at the frequency of the music's pulse.
A variety of systems exist throughout the world for organising and playing metrical music, such as the Indian system of tala and similar systems in Arabian and African music.