A clear notion of how hypermetric spans accord with or depart from the linear time of music’s sounding structures is essential to the analysis of hypermeter. By the prevailing cognitive paradigm, this means distinguishing expectation from realization, meter being the schema by which listeners make sense of unfolding sound. Metric theory is thus the science of correlating patterns of ‘subjective’ metrical experience to the structure of unfolding sound (determined by ostensibly more ‘objective’ factors such as the progression of chords or the differentiation of motivic content). The paradigm provides for important distinctions, e.g. a certain hypermeter may be present (to the listener) for a time, even though no complete hypermeasure transpires in the sounded structure.