Answer:

The duration of notes and silence—that is, how long a musical sound or pause is held—is an essential part of performing, composing, and experiencing music. Many of the chapters in this book are concerned primarily with matters of pitch: scales, intervals, and chords. But without a firm understanding of how these elements interact in time, they lose much of their meaning. Consider the following example in which the note durations of a well-known melody have been altered. See if you can identify the melody in its altered form.