Books about the history of rhythms?
January 8, 2012 10:31 AM   Subscribe

Does This Book Exist-filter: A Short History of Nearly Everything Rhythm?

I would love to read a popular history of rhythms, that traced e.g. tribal drumming through to the 21st century. Kind of like A Short History of Nearly Everything but not about everything, just musical rhythms--where they came from, what cultural significance they had, what they influenced, if there were any colorful personalities behind them, etc...

More academic suggestions would be interesting too, and varying levels of anthropological, psychological, historical, or music-theoretical details are ok.

I'm aware of Oliver Sacks's Musicophilia and Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music, but not much else and nothing explicitly focused on rhythms; google and amazon searches don't turn up much.
posted by ropeladder to Media & Arts (6 answers total) 12 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: I was going to try emailing Wayne at Wayne & Wax for you and point him this way but my email is down and apparently might be for the day. I suspect he would know. (If you contact him and he replies, I'd appreciate it if you post his answer here). Wayne is a good guy and would probably be happy to assist.
posted by neuromodulator at 10:39 AM on January 8, 2012


Best answer: You've heard about the Amen Break, right?

It's only from 1969, but it's been pretty influential since then.

Of course, you might also be interested in the "Everything is a remix".
Sure, they're not books, but still useful.
posted by Wild_Eep at 11:39 AM on January 8, 2012


Best answer: Not quite what you're after but David Toop's books are good, particularly Ocean of Sound. Also his Rap Attack is about the relationship between african music and hip-hop.
posted by pmcp at 12:25 PM on January 8, 2012


Best answer: george hrab took a quick look at the sorts of rhythms that come together in drum circles.

18min

I don't know that helps you at all. I know it doesn't really trace them through history or anything, but I would think he would be the guy to ask.
posted by 0bs01337 at 3:27 PM on January 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Rhythm in 60 seconds.

- The dominant rhythm is 4/4 which is an expanded version of 2/4 at either a walking or running pace. (we have two limbs so 2/4 x2 = 4/4).

- 3/4 is a waltz rhythm, it needs it's own weird dance because we don't have 3 limbs.

- Compound rhythms are made up of mixtures of these things. 5/4 can be thought of as 3/4 + 2/4 or 2/4 + 3/4 etc.

- This is as far as Europeans got.

- Syncopation is rhythm that emphasizes unexpected beats. By and large they come from Africa. As one musicologist pointed out - Europe mastered harmony, Africa mastered rhythm. Blues and Jazz are African melodies & rhythms infused with European harmony and hip-hop's origins in rhythm can be traced back in a similar way.

- The name for these African syncopations as filtered through Latin music is called Clave (pronounced Cla-Veh).

- Your internet searches will be much more fruitful if you search for the history of Afro-Cuban and Latin rhythms based on the Clave. Most of the books I know of on the subject are instructional to teach musicians Clave style playing.

- You probably also want to investigate Afropop and I'd venture to say that you'd enjoy the Broadway show Fela about the life of Fela Kuti.
posted by MesoFilter at 6:38 PM on January 8, 2012 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thanks for the answers. I've heard of the Amen break--ideally I'd love a book full of stories like that, connecting them and tracing their history.

Maybe I'll just have to just write it myself...
posted by ropeladder at 10:14 PM on January 8, 2012


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