Rhythm in Cross-Cultural Perspective

Harvard FAS

This course will explore rhythm, meter, and more broadly, musical time, by critically comparing three ways in which concepts of rhythm reach us as students, scholars, and listeners: 1) Local theories of rhythm, as generated by practitioners and theorists with respect to a particular repertoire or style; 2) More general scholarly discourses and debates on the nature of rhythm; and 3) Our perceptions of rhythmic process as we listen to a variety of musical examples drawn from Asia (West,…