The metrical underpinnings of African time-line patterns
A time line is a short and memorably shaped rhythmic pattern that is typically played by an iron bell as an ostinato within a polyrhythmic texture accompanying dance-drumming. While research by Pressing (1983), Kubik (1999, 2010) and Toussaint (2013) has unveiled a wealth of information about their origins, geo-cultural distribution, structural values and abstract properties, fewer studies have been made of their metrical underpinnings. Referring to twelve time-line patterns from West and Central Africa, this paper argues that, because time lines are normally embodied, dance feet provide important clues to metrical orientation. The mediation of performance in turn undermines claims for their multi-stability or metrical undecidability.