Polymorphism
pdf score
:rhythm discussion:
mm.9
The left hand is segmented between three rhythms: the pinky/4th finger
play the lowest 3 notes (the bar divided into 3 beats), the thumb
plays the highest 4 notes (the bar divided into 4 beats), the 2nd and
3rd finger play the middle 2 notes (the bar divided into 2 beats).
In order to fit the right hand's 5 beats over this, I
would recommend extensively practicing 5 against 3 and 5 against 4
separately until you can get them relatively clean. If you want to see
the rhthm without a tuplet, you can see the figure rewritten in 15/8 here.
repeats at mm.17 and mm.48
As noted in the score, these sections repeat with the particular group of repeated measures lessening by 1 until they are gone.
mm.36
Here is your chance to practice improvising in this rhythmic
stew. Just start dancing around the penatonic scale against the left
hand anchor.
mm.51
Here, I introduce a new polyrhythmic theme. Rather than generating a
polyrhythm by different simultaneous divisions of the beat, I
create rhythmic tension by displacement. If we say there are 3 beats in
a bar, then the left hand bass plays a line that is 4 beats long (D-D,
C-C). This means it takes 4 bars for the cycle to repeat itself.
mm.63
The 8th note in the 6/8 is the same pulse as the half note in the
section before. We have doubled the length of a bar (moving from 3 to
6). I could have written this in 24/8 to keep the half note pulse, but
since I dropped the 4 polyrhthm, it is unnecessary.
Right hand: 6/8
Left hand: 8/8 +10/8
cycle repeats after three cycles of right hand
mm.71
a little 2 beat hiccup on our way back out of this darker section
mm.74
The 3 against 2 pattern in the left hand is half the speed as the figure that began the song.
mm.82
The original figure is now written in 6/8 instead of 12/8 as it was at
the beginning. The tempo alternates double-time and half-time (old
theme and new theme) until the end.
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