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The claim that "almost all of the most important world music rhythms are Euclidean rhythms" requires some serious cherry-picking and arm twisting. I would agree

The claim that "almost all of the most important world music rhythms are Euclidean rhythms" requires some serious cherry-picking and arm twisting. I would agree on much weaker claim that all Euclidean rhythms can be recognized in world music, but then most of random arrangements on 8 and 7 grid will sound familiar after couple of repetitions. Humans are just good at recognizing rhythmic patterns.

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clumsycomputer 4y ago
ive been fascinated by euclidean rhythms for the past 10 years or so, and while playing with the pattern ended up coming across a more general flexible abstraction built upon euclidean rhythms that can generate every rhythm, which ive laid out over at https://github.com/clumsycomputer/clumsy-math#recursive-euclidean-rhythm https://github.com/clumsycomputer/clumsy-math#recursive-eucl.... euclidean rhythms are also great for generating / selecting musical scales and chords among other things
lioeters 4y ago
The paper that the notebook is based on goes in fascinating encyclopaedic detail, with the math and music theory to support the thesis. The claim in the paper is closer to yours, that some of the most popular rhyhms in music cultures around the world are Euclidean patterns. > The Euclidean algorithm (which comes down to us from Euclid’s Elements) computes the greatest common divisor of two given integers. It is shown here that the structure of the Euclidean algorithm may be used to automatically generate, very efficiently, a large family of rhythms used as timelines (rhythmic ostinatos), in traditional world music. These rhythms, here dubbed Euclidean rhythms, have the property that their onset patterns are distributed as evenly as possible in a mathematically precise sense, and optimal manner. G. T. Toussaint, The Euclidean algorithm generates traditional musical rhythms, Proceedings of BRIDGES: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science - http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~godfried/publications/banff-extended.pdf http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~godfried/publications/banff-extende... --- The author published a book titled The Geometry of Musical Rhythm, one of whose chapters is based on the paper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geometry_of_Musical_Rhythm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geometry_of_Musical_Rhythm

deleted 4y ago

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clumsycomputer 4y ago

ive been fascinated by euclidean rhythms for the past 10 years or so, and while playing with the pattern ended up coming across a more general flexible abstraction built upon euclidean rhythms that can generate every rhythm, which ive laid out over at https://github.com/clumsycomputer/clumsy-math#recursive-euclidean-rhythm https://github.com/clumsycomputer/clumsy-math#recursive-eucl.... euclidean rhythms are also great for generating / selecting musical scales and chords among other things

lioeters 4y ago

The paper that the notebook is based on goes in fascinating encyclopaedic detail, with the math and music theory to support the thesis. The claim in the paper is closer to yours, that some of the most popular rhyhms in music cultures around the world are Euclidean patterns. > The Euclidean algorithm (which comes down to us from Euclid’s Elements) computes the greatest common divisor of two given integers. It is shown here that the structure of the Euclidean algorithm may be used to automatically generate, very efficiently, a large family of rhythms used as timelines (rhythmic ostinatos), in traditional world music. These rhythms, here dubbed Euclidean rhythms, have the property that their onset patterns are distributed as evenly as possible in a mathematically precise sense, and optimal manner. G. T. Toussaint, The Euclidean algorithm generates traditional musical rhythms, Proceedings of BRIDGES: Mathematical Connections in Art, Music, and Science - http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~godfried/publications/banff-extended.pdf http://cgm.cs.mcgill.ca/~godfried/publications/banff-extende... --- The author published a book titled The Geometry of Musical Rhythm, one of whose chapters is based on the paper. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geometry_of_Musical_Rhythm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Geometry_of_Musical_Rhythm