The Composer's Path → Module 2 of 9
Rhythm as Structure
The center of gravity for the music you want to write. Six lessons that treat rhythm the way the source course treats pitch, as material to be composed, from Stravinsky's cells to Meshuggah's cycles to Nancarrow's canons.
Pulse, grid, and the layered meter: Meshuggah's method against Stravinsky's
Meshuggah's metric superimposition against Stravinsky's irregular meter.
2 weeks L7Rotated riffs and unexpected beginnings: rotation as a structural operation
Rotation as a structural operation, in obZen and in Stravinsky.
2 weeks L8Additive process: Dream Theater, Reich, and Babbitt's time points
Dream Theater, Reich's additive process, and Babbitt's time-point system.
2 weeks L9Euclidean and maximally even rhythms: rhythm and pitch as the same mathematics
Radiohead's rhythms and maximally even pitch sets as the same mathematics.
2 weeks L10Odd and mixed meter as melody, and how to tell technique from folklore
Tool, Hamasyan, and Coleman against Bartok and Stravinsky, with the fan lore removed.
2 weeks L11Tempo as material: metric modulation, Nancarrow's canons, Ligeti's études
Metric modulation, Nancarrow's tempo canons, and Ligeti's etudes.
2 weeks