Considered as a certain duration of time, the beat - or regular pulse-rate and overarching pace - of a musical passage is not necessarily identical with the durations of its individual, successively heard sounds. Rather, the duration of its beat corresponds to the perceived lowest common denominator interval of time that the brain can infer from comparing its constituent sounds' different durations, OR - should all of its constituent sounds be equal in duration - the highest common factor interval of time that is perceived as exhibiting some kind of recurring temporal regularity (for example, a regular descending sequence formed of a set number of equal-duration sounds). The brain is equally capbable of inferring the beat by either manner of computation - and, indeed, of deploying them in combination.
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