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Polyrhythm
Literally many rhythms. Usually these rhythms are quite distinct
from one another.Polyrhythms within any one piece of music may or
may not conform to a central meter.In Kpanlogo, the first piece you
studied, you learned the bell, the rattle, the bomba, thefirichiwa
and the hand drum. Each of the patterns played on these instruments
had an
independent character of feel, yet they all conformed to a 4/4
meter (4 beats to the bar witha 1e&a 2e&a... subdivision).
In other forms of polyrhythm one part suggests a different
beat stream or counting system form the other part. This is a
particular kind of polyrhythmis said to be ploymetric (see below).
So the term polyrhythm can be used to refer to
independent patterns in the same meter, or to patterns which
cross each others metricsense (often called cross beats or cross
rhythms).
Polymeter
Two (or more) meters or beat streams sounded (or implied)
simultaneously. In Africanmusic the most common polymeter is 3:2 (3
beats in the time of 2 beats). The 4:3
polymeter (4 beats in the time of 3 beats) is present in many
standard pattern ideas, butoperates mostly as a generative model
for creating particular forms of syncopation. Inother words it
serves as the basis for generating patterns that use only part of
thepolymeter.
In class we have looked at a few approaches to managing these
polymeters.
Vocables
For the 3:2 polymeter we took three-beat stream as the basis and
added the offbeatbetween the count of two and the count of three,
thus:
say: 1 2 & 3
count: 1 & 2 & 3 &
For the 3:4 polymeter we used the spoken phrase cook the big fat
chicken.
say: cook the big fat chi- cken
count: 1 e & a 2 e & a 3 e & a
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Composite pattern
The above vocables act as a memory strategy. They also formed
the basis for creating thehand-to-hand execution of the composite
pattern. This is the pattern that results from
combining the two meters into a single linear pattern, wherein
each component of theseparate beat streams is thought of simply as
part of a linear sequence of events. This
now enables us to play the polymeters as a simple hand-to-hand
rhythm:
say: 1 2 & 3
play: tog right left right
say: cook the big fat chi- cken
play: tog right left right left right
(tog = together)
Step-clap execution
Now we can distribute the events between the hands and the feet
to separate the two beatstreams.
say: 1 2 & 3
play: tog clap step clap
say: cook the big fat chi- cken
play: tog clap step clap step clap
(tog = together)
Verbal representation
To help you coordinate your hands and feet, make a verbal
representation of the soundsmade by each bodily component: the step
can be represented by a short boom, and theclap by a short ka.
