The Student Room Group
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>

GCSE Music - Polyrhythms and crossrhythms

Hi! I'm revising for my GCSE Music AQA Unit 1 (Listening). Tonight I've been doing African music, and have realised I'm confused about some rhythmic terms.

I always thought a polyrhythm was just two or more different rhythms played at the same time.

My music notes that I wrote in class say that:

a cross-rhythm is 'rhythms played together with different time signatures'

a bi-rhythm is 'rhythms played together with different position of strong beats'

However GCSE Bitesize seems to contradict this, putting polyrhythm and cross rhythm the other way round and not even mentioning bi-rhythm...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/music/world_music/music_africa3.shtml

Can anyone help un-confuse me? Thanks! :smile:
Reply 1
Avatar for M4Y
M4Y
2
Hi! I'm doing A level music now and even though BBC bite size is an official website, ignore it because even websites make mistakes. Polyrhythms is when many different rhythms are played together, and normally both rhythms have the same time signature. Have you heard of the term polyphonic or Melody dominated Polyphony? The term Polyrhythms is derived from there and literally means many different rhythms interweaving and creating a very rich and complex rhythm. Polyphonic refers to the texture and literally means many different instruments playing at once with different rhythms, creating a rich texture. For the example of these two terms, I suggest listening to something composed by steve reich, for example The new York counterpoint movement 2 where more than two clarinets are playing. It should help you understand as you cannot find the beat, even though the piece is in 3/4 time. Cross rhythms on the other hand, mean that there are two different parts with two similar rhythms but one part has a different time signature. The reason they are called cross rhythms is because every once in a while, the parts cross and play the exact same rhythm, but then drift out of sync again as they have different time signatures. Cross rhythms sound like polyrhythms, only once in a while, the parts play the same thing and polyrhythms never cross. If you still don't understand, say so and I will try to explain differently. :smile: Hope this helped and good luck!
Great, thanks! That makes quite a bit more sense :smile: I am familiar with polyphonic texture so can easily relate it to polyrhythms. I'll take your advice and listen to Reich! Do you know anything about bi-rhythms?
Reply 3
Avatar for M4Y
M4Y
2
Hello again! A bi-rhythm is literally just a specific type of polyrhythm. It means that just two (hence the 'bi' - like a bicycle has two wheels...) different rhythms are playing at the same time. Hope this helps! :smile:
Agree with M4Y. Ignore the bite size thing. A crossrhythm can also be when a rhythmic phrase goes across the existing beat creating syncopation like Glen Miller's 'In The Mood'.

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you