Inner Rhythms

2/2/1998 

Book: The Dance of Life by Edward Hall–another absolutely fascinating book by Hall, this time about various cultural viewpoints on the subject of time, how to be congruent, vis-a-vis artistic expression, with it being the yardstick as to whether something is authentic. On synchrony in music: “People can be observed syncing when music is being played. There is a popular misconception about music because since there is a beat to music, it is generally accepted that the rhythm originates in the music, not that music is a releaser of rhythms already in the individual. Otherwise, how does one explain the close fit between ethnicity and music“. He should take it a bit further to say that the rhythms of American culture (trends and fashion), are sometimes the beat we groove to, whether we know it or not. Entrainment provides an explanation for the syncing of lovers, even across time and space. This is similar to Sheldrake’s morphic resonance. Hall also discovered that there are rhythms of our social interactions, re: the film of the school playground, where one girl orchestrated the movements of the whole school yard, which can be matched with certain pieces of music, such as Phil Glass’s Koyaanisqatsi. Music represents a rhythmic consensus of the core culture. It was clear the children weren’t moving to a particular piece of music; they were moving to a basic beat which they shared at the time. They also shared it with the composer, who must have plunked it out of the sea of rhythm in which he too, was immersed. But this could be simply coincidental. It would also be interesting to know whether the piece was conceived at the particular moment when the kids were playing, while the composer was watching them. Hall also says that there are certain composers and poets who can naturally pick up the beat from the culture.
 

[2/2/2026: 28 years later I realize this was the moment when I realized that I was essentially inspired by rhythms in music, and is the way that I continue to work to this day. The Songdays are based on this, where the piece starts bottom-up from the rhythms in the words. This is in contrast to starting a piece of music based on a chord change or a melody. In the context of AI music generation, if the lyrics are crafted in such a way that they are already rhythmic and musical, the AI automatically picks up on this, but not perfectly, and is very clunky. I don't think AI music singers will ever be able to understand language and context of music as humans do–not unless there is a way to give instructions in the prompt as to how to sing certain words and phrases, perhaps “less/more rubato”]
 
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