Swinglines: Rhythm, Timing, and Polymeter in Musical Phrasing
The way rhythm is taught in Western classrooms and music lessons is rooted in a centuries-old European approach that favors metric levels within a grand symmetrical grid. Swinglines encourages readers to experience rhythms, even gridded ones, as freewheeling affairs irrespective of the metric hierarchy. At its core, this book is a nuts-and-bolts study of durational comparisons in the context of creative expression. It shows that rhythms traditionally framed as "deviations" and "non-isochronous" have their own identities. They are coherent products of precise musical thought and action. Rather than situating them in the neither-here-nor-there, author Fernando Benadon takes a more inclusive view, one where isochrony and metric grids are shown as particular cases within the universe of musical time.

Rhythms that do not readily comply with the metered regime are often regarded as anomalies and deformations. The music explored in this book demonstrates how readily this paradigm vanishes once the frame is flipped from what rhythm is not to what rhythm is. As conceptualized here, swing flattens the temporal field to consider how note values relate to one another by any magnitude, not just the simple ratios of traditional theory. Musical analyses illustrate the book's concepts with the aid of transcriptions and timing-data visualizations. Variation, tuplets, polymeter, displacement, phrase structure, rhythmic counterpoint, parallel tempos, cyclical patterns, and time signatures are shown to be particular expressions that draw their contours from the swing continuum. They showcase the rich diversity of rhythm and propose ways to reframe how we think about musical time.
1143224594
Swinglines: Rhythm, Timing, and Polymeter in Musical Phrasing
The way rhythm is taught in Western classrooms and music lessons is rooted in a centuries-old European approach that favors metric levels within a grand symmetrical grid. Swinglines encourages readers to experience rhythms, even gridded ones, as freewheeling affairs irrespective of the metric hierarchy. At its core, this book is a nuts-and-bolts study of durational comparisons in the context of creative expression. It shows that rhythms traditionally framed as "deviations" and "non-isochronous" have their own identities. They are coherent products of precise musical thought and action. Rather than situating them in the neither-here-nor-there, author Fernando Benadon takes a more inclusive view, one where isochrony and metric grids are shown as particular cases within the universe of musical time.

Rhythms that do not readily comply with the metered regime are often regarded as anomalies and deformations. The music explored in this book demonstrates how readily this paradigm vanishes once the frame is flipped from what rhythm is not to what rhythm is. As conceptualized here, swing flattens the temporal field to consider how note values relate to one another by any magnitude, not just the simple ratios of traditional theory. Musical analyses illustrate the book's concepts with the aid of transcriptions and timing-data visualizations. Variation, tuplets, polymeter, displacement, phrase structure, rhythmic counterpoint, parallel tempos, cyclical patterns, and time signatures are shown to be particular expressions that draw their contours from the swing continuum. They showcase the rich diversity of rhythm and propose ways to reframe how we think about musical time.
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Swinglines: Rhythm, Timing, and Polymeter in Musical Phrasing

Swinglines: Rhythm, Timing, and Polymeter in Musical Phrasing

by Fernando Benadon
Swinglines: Rhythm, Timing, and Polymeter in Musical Phrasing

Swinglines: Rhythm, Timing, and Polymeter in Musical Phrasing

by Fernando Benadon

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Overview

The way rhythm is taught in Western classrooms and music lessons is rooted in a centuries-old European approach that favors metric levels within a grand symmetrical grid. Swinglines encourages readers to experience rhythms, even gridded ones, as freewheeling affairs irrespective of the metric hierarchy. At its core, this book is a nuts-and-bolts study of durational comparisons in the context of creative expression. It shows that rhythms traditionally framed as "deviations" and "non-isochronous" have their own identities. They are coherent products of precise musical thought and action. Rather than situating them in the neither-here-nor-there, author Fernando Benadon takes a more inclusive view, one where isochrony and metric grids are shown as particular cases within the universe of musical time.

Rhythms that do not readily comply with the metered regime are often regarded as anomalies and deformations. The music explored in this book demonstrates how readily this paradigm vanishes once the frame is flipped from what rhythm is not to what rhythm is. As conceptualized here, swing flattens the temporal field to consider how note values relate to one another by any magnitude, not just the simple ratios of traditional theory. Musical analyses illustrate the book's concepts with the aid of transcriptions and timing-data visualizations. Variation, tuplets, polymeter, displacement, phrase structure, rhythmic counterpoint, parallel tempos, cyclical patterns, and time signatures are shown to be particular expressions that draw their contours from the swing continuum. They showcase the rich diversity of rhythm and propose ways to reframe how we think about musical time.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780197659977
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 06/07/2024
Series: OXFORD STUDIES IN MUSIC THEORY
Pages: 320
Product dimensions: 6.44(w) x 9.41(h) x 0.87(d)

About the Author

Fernando Benadon is a composer and music theorist at American University. He has released two albums of original music (Intuitivo and delight/delirium) and has published articles on rhythm in jazz improvisation and Afro-Cuban drumming.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Introduction

1. Swing Theory

2. Downbeat Bound

3. Voice and Beat

4. My Neighbor the Triplet

5. Traversals

6. Onset Space

7. Hybrids

8. When Polymeters Attack

9. Shifting Accents

10. Reflections

Appendix A

Appendix B

Discography

Bibliography

Index
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