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Polyrhythm
(redirected from Cross-rhythm)

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Polyrhythm 

(cross rhythm), in music, the simultaneous use of two or more different rhythmic patterns. In general, “polyrhythm” means the combining of any rhythmic patterns. It was the norm for European polyphonic music, beginning with the 12th-century motet. In this general sense, polyrhythm includes the simplest rhythmic combinations (for example, quarter notes in one voice and eighth notes in the other), as well as compound rhythmic combinations, which are defined as polymetry.

In a specialized sense, polyrhythm is the vertical combination of rhythmic patterns characterized by the absence of the smallest unit of time common to all voices (for example, a combination of duplets and triplets, or triplets and quintuplets). This type of polyrhythm is characteristic of works by Chopin, Scriabin, A. Webern, and A. Berg.

V. N. KHOLOPOVA



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The result is unashamedly folksy, but with distinctive indigenous Mersey cross-rhythms and harmonies.
Jacob Obrecht's setting - repetitive, but spiced with urgent cross-rhythms - and the freer, more obviously expressive work by Josquin des Prez were outstandingly dispatched by the 16 singers, framing a brief performance of the original song, its lost words replaced with a new, suitably melancholy French text.
The restless cross-rhythms in the second part led to a furious depiction of storms in which choral voices were also used as instruments to add to the drama.
 
 
 
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