Removing the sense of pulse and/or meter in modernist music disrupts the musical continuity and makes events much harder to predict.

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In examining the statement about rhythm in modernist music, we need to weigh how pulse and meter function in generating continuity and predictability.

- The claim that removing the sense of pulse and/or meter disrupts musical continuity aligns with many modernist approaches. When a steady meter or clear pulse is present, listeners anticipate rhythmic events along a predictable grid. 
- By dissolving or destabilizing that grid, composers like Schoenberg, Webern, and later Cage experimented with irregular or ambiguous tempos, nontraditional grouping, or free rhythm, which tends to blur expectations and make timing of events harder to forecast. This is a hallmark of reducing metrical clarity to create a more fluid, less anchored sense of flow. 
- From a perceptual standpoint, the human ear uses pulse as an organizing principle; removing it removes a primary scaffold for prediction, so events become less predictable and the sense of continuous motion across the music can feel unsettled or fragmented.

However, there are nuances worth noting:
- Some modernist works still retain a perceptible pulse or subtle metrical cues through texture, gesture, or alignment with other musical parameters (timbre, density, metric modulation), so predictability can persist in alternative forms. 
- There are pieces where the removal of a strict pulse is deliberate, yet listeners can latch onto narrative or structural cues that reestablish continuity in other ways, indicating that continuity can be maintained through nonbeat-based means.

Overall, the core idea behind the statement is sound: eliminating a clear sense of pulse or meter often interrupts continuity and heightens unpredictability in the listening experience, reflecting a central strategy in many modernist practices. Nevertheless, it is not an absolute rule, since some works compensate with other organizing forces that preserve coherence for the listener.

MUS-101-01: Intro/Western Classical Module 6 Quiz

Removing the sense of pulse and/or meter in modernist music disrupts the musical continuity and makes events much harder to predict.

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