Concepts Behind Rhythm, Part 2

Now that we have discussed some of the primary values of rhythm as the infrastructure of music and the immediate pros/cons of the notation of "measured music," we can delve into deeper layers of rhythm.

Rhythm exists in every facet of life. It is found in the cycles of the moon and the tides. It is built into the pace of our strides and the cadence of our speech. Our very life source pumps regulated beats through our veins. And therefore, just as rhythm is found in the core of life, we can identify rhythm as the core of music.

Syllabic meter and the flow of punctuation within any poem, prose, or musical piece create the foundation by which any piece derives meaning. With any given rhythm, you can create a pattern that tells a story. Rhythm is the beginning of communication in any piece of music. Establishing a pace and flow within a song gives the listener the ability to anticipate the resulting highs and lows built into the structure of a song.

Feeling the rhythm (movement through time) connects directly to dance (movement through space). And any good dancer, regardless of style, must have this key grasp of rhythm and communication that many artists refer to as musicality.

Here we can examine a few styles of dance that exemplify good musicality:






Eleanor Powell and more, Fascinatin' Rhythm

This amazing choreography gives a great depiction of the story told by the Gershwins in their folksy and timely piece Fascintin' Rhythm. On many levels, the choreography epitomizes the song and the period in which it was made. The driving rhythm in this song is well demonstrated in each tap of the foot, the different tapping styles of the artists, and the dedication to the ongoing patterns invigoratingly repeated. Most of all, the great musicality of these artists fulfills the story created in the song.

Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, The Kirov Ballet

 I believe that the story created in ballet is best appreciated in its full form, not in excerpts. This particular performance of Swan Lake is extremely well done and worth the time watching the full video. You can see clearly in this style how a dancer, as an artist, can manipulate every slight motion--flitting across the beat or carrying long motions over the pace--of each musical movement to tell a story. Especially in the theatrical use of ballet, the story is evermore apparent through the perfected musicality of each dancer.

Dawn Richard, Bombs Choreography

I included this style because of its distinct attention to detail in defining the story of the song. You can tell, without even looking deeply into the lyrics, that this piece is intended as a feministic and empowering story. It may have the wrong idea about how women can portray and embody true power in the sense that God intends, but the choreography very well tells their version of what it means to be a powerful woman. Their dedication to the rhythm in this song is spectacular. They utilize different hip hop styles including isolations, some threading, and tutting. They also utilize some strong influences from African dance forms. While they are using this style for personal glorification, I still believe understanding this style is important and can be redeeming for God's glory. Just watch as each step and isolated move carries out the driving pulse of the song.

While we have stuck to some basic beats for grasping rhythm, there is a bigger picture that rhythm can deliver in some of its more complex patterns. Let's take into account the late, great Dave Brubeck. We will return to him in the future because of his impact on music history and also because of his personal testimony in the face of a changing world--a world into which American music fully collides. In his travels in Turkey, he discovered a 9/8 rhythm pattern that he adopted and completely re-purposed for a new musical conversation.

Here is a bit of his story:

Dave Brubeck, from Ken Burns' Jazz



Blue Rondo à la Turk, Dave Brubeck Quartet

You can hear how the pattern of his rhythm was the perfect home for the light, yet substantive style of his alto-saxophonist, Paul Desmond.

Hopefully, through these few examples, we have opened the door to seeing rhythm as the infrastructure of music. There is always more to see and hear. So from this point, listen for the rhythms, and the patterns structured around them, in every future piece you come across. With this perspective, you can zero in on the rhythm and begin making analytical deductions concerning the worldview and message of the piece you are hearing.

By remembering that "rhythm is the how," telling us how each note is to be delivered, offering us a the weight of importance placed on each musical point, we can follow the flow and plot of any song's story line. We begin to discover the intentions of the artist and the values they want to impart with their audience. And as artists, we ourselves learn more about our ability to create and share our stories with the world.