# "Ordered chaos" in rhythm.



## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

This is a technique of composition, which consist on having a _fast and steady pulse_ (say, a continuum of quaver notes with a fast tempo) and a _careful and selected accentuation of some of these notes_ (for example, by playing them more louder; by changing the harmony, the colour, the register, etc). Using this technique, you can create arbitrarily complex cross rhythms (for example, take a group of six quaver notes of the succession, you can divide the number six in three parts of two, but also in two of three, so, with the proper accentuation, you can create the 3:2 cross rhythm; http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/3_over_2.png). Of course, you can play those cross rhythms without playing all the "internal" quaver notes. This is easy for simple cross rhythms, like 3:2, but for the complex ones, it's more easy to play also the internal quaver notes, so you can count them and in that way you will know exactly when you must make the rhythmic accentuation. So, we have our complex cross rhythm pattern played over the steady fast continuum of quaver notes. And here it comes the magic: the complex cross rhythm sounds very chaotic, because of its own nature, but at the same time, you have the steady fast continuum of quaver notes in the background, which is pure order. In that way, you can create the ilusion of an "ordered chaos" in rhythm. The term was coined by Ligeti, inspired in the traditional music of sub-saharan Africa. 
It has a very particular and hypnotic sound.
Some examples:

-Ligeti's piano etude "Desordre" is a deliberate application of this technique.






(the main accentuation comes from playing the note with an octave also)

-Ligeti's piano etude "L'escalier du diable".






-In african music.






(yes, the guy is white :lol

-The sonata number V of Cage's "Sonatas and Interludes for prepared piano".






(this one is pretty interesting, the prepared piano has the possibility of sounding like diverse percussion instruments, so the steady pulse in the left hand sounds like a percussion ensemble, playing a very complex rhythm, even more when the right hand also plays a steady rhythm in some parts)

What do you think?, do you like the technique?, do you know more examples?, something more about?.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Hehehe. When I read the thread title I thought "I'm from South Africa and we specialise in this."







'


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## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Yes, I like Ligeti's use polyrhythms too. They create a great energetic drive. Philip Glass' Glassworks is also a beautiful example such complex tempo relations.

Bruckner does something similar at the end of his Fourth: he uses an ostinato of two quarter note triplets over two half notes. The ostinato suggests a TICK-tock rhythm, but because of the half notes, the monotonous TICK-tock becomes a more interesting and slightly unsettling TICK-tock-tick, TOCK-tick-tock sequence. It's not strictly polyrhythmic, I guess, since there are no in-between-notes so that the ear can reinterpret the half notes as dotted half notes and make a 6/4 rhythm out of it, but it's interesting nonetheless.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

My final presentation in my rhythm II class was based on this concept. I used Ligeti's etude "Autumn in Warsaw" as an example.


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