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From: jeffw@tekecs.UUCP (Jeff Winslow)
Newsgroups: net.music,net.music.synth
Subject: Re: Drum Machines - A Flame (arrhythmic music?)
Message-ID: <5440@tekecs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Jun-85 19:35:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: tekecs.5440
Posted: Wed Jun 12 19:35:45 1985
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I don't give a rip about drum machines, one way or another, but I do have
one comment:

> Rhythm, on the other hand, pervades all music. There can be aharmonic
> and amelodic music, but there is no such thing as arrhythmic music.
> Stating that the core of a piece is its harmonic content is like
> saying that the meaning of a language is the way it is spelled.
> These are *not* value judgements. I listen to a pretty wide range
> of music, and these are the conclusions I reach. 

A piece of music in which all voices occur at random (time) intervals would
be arrhythmic. I have heard a few pieces that were close to this -
certainly I have heard ones where there was a pretty much continous flow of
sound without obvious accent.

Ah, you say, but as long as notes occur in time you have rhythm! (Pardon
me for momentarily putting words in your mouth. You can take them out any
time you like.) Well, yes, in the sense that you can say: "as long as you have
several notes in the same voice, you have melody", or "as long as you hear
one set of three simultaneous notes move to another set, you have harmony".
But in all three of these cases, if there is an absence of intent, you have
a[rhythm, melody, harmony].

It's also true that people like to sense patterns where none exist (ever see 
patterns on the screen of a TV tuned to a blank channel?), so perhaps
such music would not seem arrhythmic to some listeners.

					no flames here,
					Jeff Winslow