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Adding rhythmic variety to a mainly triplet section, how?


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So I'm about halfway through finishing one of 12 movements of a suite I am writing and I have reached this triplet section after having been in more or less a square rhythm(eighths and sixteenths) with the occasional triplet. I was thinking of adding some rhythmic variety as I slowly bring the instruments back into a full tutti from the violin solo that starts the triplet section(which by the way, is part of the reason why arpeggios and back and forth motion in thirds are so common in this triplet section, I develop the solo material's motives). You will know the triplet section has arrived once you hear the tutti G minor chord.

But, the thing is, I basically have 2 rhythmic planes going on in the triplet section, eighth note triplets and quarter notes. There is the occasional quarter eighth in said triplets, but it is mostly just eighth notes in the triplets. Eighth note triplets and quarter notes go well together, but it isn't much rhythmic variety. I'm feeling the need for more rhythmic variety as I add more instruments back in. There are 2 ways that I was thinking of doing this, one being tuplets and another being a square rhythm.

Option 1: Bringing the square rhythm back

This is the first option I was thinking of using since it doesn't just add to the triplets like a tuplet rhythm would, but actually contrasts with them and since there isn't much contrast going on in the triplet section besides that of tone color, I figured rhythmic contrast would bring that contrast to the point of being balanced. Now the question was, eighth notes or sixteenth notes? I have used both of those values before in the square rhythm section, which is itself divided into subsections based on harmony and # of instruments playing. I figured I would start with eighth notes and then try sixteenth notes afterwards and see which one I prefer. Something unexpected happened though when I tried using eighth notes. I have used polyrhythms before, mainly in piano solo, but also a few chamber works and I didn't get much of a rhythmic clash, so much as I got rhythmic interest. And this is with me staying consonant with the harmony.

I did the same thing in this piece, staying consonant with the harmony outside of a few non-chord tones as the polyrhythm is played, and I didn't get that same feel as I got with other polyrhythm examples, but rather, quite the clash. It almost sounded like a harmonic clash, but every note except the non-chord tones was consonant with the harmony, so why such a clash? I don't think I have heard rhythmic dissonance that bad in any of my pieces, polyrhythm or not.

Option 2: Tuplet rhythm

Now this could go so many ways. I could have nonuplets in every beat, sort of a triplet of triplets, but that would get way too complicated to sustain I think, so I don't think I should do that. Tuplet against tuplet is another option, but considering how much rhythmic dissonance I got with the 2:3 polyrhythm, I don't think I would want to do 5:3 or really any other tuplet polyrhythm, since I think that would just add to the rhythmic dissonance already present with the 2:3 polyrhythm. Another option I have here is syncopation, which I like to think of as a rhythmic accent outside of the typical rhythmic accents of a certain time signature. This could be as simple as having a quarter eighth rhythm in the triplets, which would accent the eighth note or the triplets themselves could be moved off the beat. But then again, wouldn't moving triplets off the beat lead to the same rhythmic dissonance as the 2:3 polyrhythm, even though the whole thing is in triplets? And how would I even notate a triplet that crosses the bar line while still getting across that it is triple meter? Both of those, the rhythmic dissonance and the notation difficulties, are making me think that off beat triplets against on beat triplets just isn't a good option here. The quarter eighth option though is sustainable and has no risk of rhythmic clashes.

So this is what I have right now of the movement and you can see in bars 52 and 53, my attempt at adding rhythmic variety to the triplet section via polyrhythm that just ended up being rhythmic dissonance to a degree that I don't think I have heard before, even in complex polyrhythms. So now what? Should I go with the quarter eighth rhythm within triplets, a simple syncopation? Or is the rhythmic dissonance I keep mentioning from the 2 voices being so close(as close as a third) and not the rhythm itself?

 

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Sounds good so far. The 3 on 2, or 3 on 4 syncopation (you know what I mean!) is a useful trick, i think you've got to be careful with it's usage as it's easy to introduce too much dissonance. With your bar 53, the 2nd note in each of the first two triplets clashes with the second quaver of each of those beats, but you could fix that with some articulation to "kill off" that G and C before the quaver clashes with them. Maybe try slurring the first two, eg: (attached mp3, using Sibelius + NotePerformer)
image.thumb.png.fd739c8354d14fb2eab0b5ab4b4e6673.png
 

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  • 4 weeks later...

You've probably already figured it out by now, but the polyrhythm doesn't have to be isochronous; that is to say, a 2:3 doesn't need to have every element of itself present. Dotted figures in the 2 portion still classify it under 2:3, for example. Countermelody with this idea provides a good sense of motion without it being constant. 

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