Artistic research: Manipulating pulse and pace

'Manipulation of pulse and pace' investigates and develops the use of polyrhythmic structures as a form-creating basis for composition. The project is based on reference rhythmics as the overall compositional method and further develops this in three different methodological approaches, called distribution rhythmics, rhythm design and moving pulse.

Reference rhythm is a technique developed by the Swedish guitarist Mulle Holmkvist. He has developed a method to learn polyrhythmics based on an intuitive phrasing of (simple) rhythms that approach the actual polyrhythm. Mulle Holmkvist's system is designed as a learning tool, while the reference rhythm in "Manipulation of pulse and tempo" is placed in a compositional / artistic context.

The overall compositional method of the project is thus reference rhythmics; rhythms in 'ordinary' subdivisions that approach the exact polyrhythm. By phrasing the reference rhythm, an intuitive shortcut is created to perform complex polyrhythms, from which three methods emerge:

Distribution Rhythm: Fixed rhythms / patterns, motorically orchestrated, that change the center of gravity in the basic sense of tempo and create the illusion of new (and variable) subdivisions.

Moving Pulse: An irregular pulse related to a fixed tempo. Polyrhythmic layers with a special swing or the illusion of rising / falling / waveing in tempo.

Rhythmic design / form: The above methods work with the individual elements of the music. The rhythm design is formative and precedes the tonal and harmonic content. "Rhythmic design" can cover many different methods, but in this project polyrhythmic reference rhythms are used to create the musical form.

The project examines and documents the architectural and the intuitive / personal aspects of both the development of rhythm design (architectural part), where a precise and accurate rhythmic foundation is developed for the composition itself, as well as the movement from structure to music. (intuitive / personal part), which is completely intuitive, but sticks strictly to the underlying rhythm design. The rhythm design can thus be described as a canvas on which the composition itself is "painted".

FINAL NOTES

I originally sat out to examine a variety of Rhythm Designs with different polyrhythmic structures (described as 'moving pulse', 'Distribution Rhythm').

In the process I decided to work with only one rhythmic design (in three variations) because I wanted to see what the different possibilities/potentials was in one rhythm design. And focus on the different directions (musical expressions) possible with the same starting point (The Rhythm Design). I'm not sure what's proven, but to me the rhythm design went in very different directions. And was a great inspiration. The Rhythm Design works as filters allowing an artistic dialog with something that feels different than my self and my own musical language. Each song felt as different to work with as different songs in the same time signature.

Future

The next step of this project is to examine the embodiment of rhythm design. The embodiment turned out to be the most important part of the process of developing a musical language within these designs. In the learning and presentation of these rhythm designs (to the trio) it was crucial to embody the rhythmic foundation in order to develop a free intuition. A future process will include a focus on the embodiment of the the rhythm design based on intuition and improvisation.