Rhythm as motion discovered

Author: Alvarez, Javier

Source: Contemporary Music Review, Volume 3, Number 1, 1989 , pp. 203-231(29)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

“Rhythm as motion discovered” is divided into three parts that discuss some of the author's current compositional ideas. The first part has two themes: firstly, the relation between language and material and the privileged position of the electroacoustic composer in his dealings with musical material as a sonic craftsman. Secondly, that meaning in musical language is in fact a `discovery' of satisfactory relations between the motion of musical structures and physical human experience and suggests that by `discovering' this relation the listener engaged in the apprehension of musical form. The second part of this paper describes how the author's compositional work has stemmed from the perspective of rhythm proposing that rhythmic structures are perhaps the strongest and most crucial references in music. Concepts such as repetition, rhythmic objects, and their transformation in the context of recent works (namely Caracteristicas and Temazcal ) are analysed. In the third and final section musical time, structure and rhythmic objects are discussed in terms of the techniques and procedures described previously and in the context of the work Papalotl . Finally, it is proposed that motion can be thought of as a rhythm of rhythms , and that by shaping motion in the aural experience the composer can in fact articulate musical time and form in a way that has a poetic meaning to the listener.

Keywords: composition; language; materials; motion; musical time; rhythm; repetition; structure

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07494468900640141

Affiliations: 1: Department of Music, The City University, London, UK

Publication date: 1989-01-01

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