From beat to syncopation to rhythm in three simple steps!
Syncopation is a rhythmic phenomenon present in various musical styles and cultures. We feel the syncopation when the sensation of the regular beat or pulse in the music is momentarily disrupted; when a note occurs earlier than expected, before the moment we felt we were going to tap our foot in synchrony, and is left hanging over the following silent but energized beat (Huron, 2006). The pleasantly surprising feeling of syncopation arises from breaking the more expected patterns of pickups (anacrusis) and fast passing notes that introduce and bridge the notes articulated on the beats.
Based on the above cognitive mechanism, I developed a model for the purposes of generation and analysis of musical rhythms that evoke a steady pulse. A rhythm is generated as a transformation of a beat by gradually introducing combinations of 3 basic characteristic elements: 1) syncopations, 2) pickup rhythmic figures and 3) faster passing notes between the beats. The model is formalized in a way that each rhythm always corresponds to a unique transformation of the beat. In this way, the transformation can be reversed through a simple algorithm that discovers and removes each characteristic element thus revealing the unique relation between the rhythm and the beat.
In this presentation, I will demonstrate two computer algorithms as proofs of concept of the model, one generative and one for the characterization of rhythms.