Developing a Polyrhythmic Idiolect

Abstract

This practice-based multi-media study sets out to reveal how procedural methodologies effect transformative change in a polyrhythmic drum-set idiolect, premised on the idea that archetypal variants and phraseological patterning constituting my musical “voice” are, primarily, results of a procedural mind rather than aggregations of replicative ideas acquired from elsewhere. The thesis accordingly sets out a detailed participant-observer study designed to reveal methodological processes and outcomes pertaining to the cultivation of a unique sonic identity. In revealing how structural-organisational processes can evolve personalised ways of manipulating rhythm, this research offers new analytical tools for understanding what improvising drummers do. Two important aims of the study are (a) to effect and document transformative change in my drum-set language through the application of improvisational methodologies, and (b) to reveal these procedures in operation from a participant-observer perspective, thereby showing how sonic identity can be individuated through personal agency and decision-making/selection processes operating within constraints. Original generative methodologies for hybridizing vocabulary and propagating unique archetypal variants – namely, the Iterative Loop Cycle and Transitional Synthesis - are central to this project, which targets six developmental areas: Suspended Primary Pulsation, Densities, Pulse Streaming, Transposing Rhythm, Isochronous Asymmetry and Mixed Rates.