This study describes and evaluates a new paradigm for informed rhythmic practice: the harmonic perspective of rhythm. Normal, theoretically driven or written rhythmic conceptions have tended to rely on a limited grid based on one...
moreThis study describes and evaluates a new paradigm for informed rhythmic practice: the harmonic
perspective of rhythm. Normal, theoretically driven or written rhythmic conceptions have tended to
rely on a limited grid based on one predominate metric cycle that is expanded by binary division
into twos, fours, eights and so on, or by ternary division into threes, sixes, twelves, etc. The harmonic
perspective, however, posits that, for much of the world's music, a broader, multidimensional
grid is in use. Such a conception allows not only for a wider palette, drawing on metric structures of
one through nine and beyond, but also for the simultaneous use of several of those structures, thus
rendering those musics in question rhythmically multidimensional. This multidimensionality seems
to operate on the level of feel—where two subdivisional references exhibit a unique pull from
which different styles and/or performers find their own subtle, non-isochronous balance; on the
level of basic compositional structure—where two or more metric structures co-exist in relative balance
to create the background of the piece; and on the level of melody and improvisation, where
performers draw on more than the usually considered, compositionally prescribed, metric structures
for their expression. The viability of this perspective is established using examples from the African
Diaspora. Practical exercises as prescribed by Puerto Rican percussionist and theorist Efrain Toro
are presented, discussed and evaluated, and the applicability of the perspective to the learning of Indian
rhythm is considered. The research is conducted as a subject-centred ethnography, combined
with a self-reflexive/auto-ethnographic approach, where the researcher applies his own experience,
observations, and insight to questions raised by the study. Foundational discussions of constructed
versus experiential knowledge, the author's background, and Indian rhythmic systems precede and
accompany the primary discussion.
Key Words
Harmonic Perspective of Rhythm; Multidimensionality; African Rhythm; Indian Rhythm; Polymetre;
Polyrhythm; Linear; Harmonic; Efrain Toro; Awareness
