A metapatterns perspective on rhythm
Metapatterns are basic phenomenological structures, often associated with clear function, that occur in biology, in the social and individual productions of culture, and in the mind. Reasons for the specific occurrences of metapatterns vary, of course, but reasons common to cases exist, having to do with efficiency, minimal production of pattern, and fit into larger patterns (nesting). For metapatterns of time, 3 basic “shapes” have been argued for: (1) arrows, some sort of continuity of patterns either in homeostasis or in directional change; (2) breaks, a relatively sudden change in the time flow of patterns; (3) cycles, crucial to biology and music. Music has these 3 metapatterns. The suggestion will be that arrows, breaks, and cycles can be developed into a way of modeling cross-cultural rhythms, as a way of asking questions about the relationship between a culture’s main musical rhythms and other patterns that exist in the culture, and as a way of asking questions and collecting data about the relationship between human-created and nature-created rhythms. Particular attention will be paid to the concept of nested hierarchy (or holarchy, or, simply, nesting) as a way to show these metapatterns get built as subpatterns within patterns within larger patterns as a way to variability and complexity in cultural evolution. Cultural evolution itself can be analyzed as a logical skeleton, by the trio of subprocesses of propagation, variation, and selection, which occur at various social and temporal scales. I will suggest that these subprocesses might be used as a way to inquiry into aspects of creation and stabilization of the metapatterns in music. The interplay between propagation, variation, and selection is crucial to improvisation, for example, and the “evolution” of these subprocesses can take place within the individual mind of the musician during improvisation. By early September, 2014, I will plan to have the workshop website post the chapter on “Cycles” from my book Metapatterns Across Space, Time, and Mind (1995, Columbia University Press).
presentation slides available here