When Polymeters Attack

Abstract

Abstract Continuing the trend from previous chapters, this chapter draws attention to rhythm within and beyond the concavities of metered time by pointing to three types of polymetric scenarios. (1) Variable polymeter features cycled rhythms that change across repetitions and recur periodically but not strictly so. (2) Attack matrices display how the accents of strictly periodic cycles change their metric status with each repetition; the process is illustrated with Hindustani tabla tihais. (3) Self-same polymeter refers to the accenting of every other note of a (shorter) cycled rhythm to get a different (second-order) rhythm that cycles twice as slowly; the recursive process is mapped in three-onset space.