Rhythm (study of)
The study of rhythmic course.
What it means
Rhythmics (German Rhythmik) designates the study of the temporal course of music and at the same time the rhythmic character of a particular piece or style. It concerns the sequence of durations, their grouping, and their relation to the underlying measure. To be distinguished from this is metrics: this describes the even grid of beats and bars, rhythmics the concrete event within it.
Musical use
The appeal often arises precisely from the relation of the two. A rhythm that follows the metre seems firm and unambiguous; one that runs against it creates tension. Syncopation shifts the accent against the counting order, the hemiola combines two bars in triple time into three units, triplets and duplets set a foreign division against the prevailing one, and in polyrhythm several organizations run simultaneously.
Rhythm is, moreover, what music is most easily recognized by: many themes remain recognizable if one only taps them, while the same pitch sequence in other values becomes unrecognizable. In dance music the rhythmic formula carries the genre — what distinguishes a minuet from a gigue is, first of all, the rhythm.
Historically the understanding has changed several times: monophonic chant follows the text, mensural polyphony measures durations without bar order, music since the seventeenth century places the bar grid at the centre, and the twentieth century largely dissolves it again.
Rhythmics comprises durations, accents, metre, and tempo as well as their organization into groups. A distinction is made between metric order, that is, the regular alternation of strong and weak beats, and the rhythm of the individual voices, which can run against the metre. In music education, moreover, Rhythmik designates a form of teaching that connects music and movement.
Performance practice
Practise the rhythm separately from the pitches — tap or speak it before you play; this is the most often skipped and fastest-acting step. Keep the metre internally in mind, even when the music runs against it. And watch long notes: they are regularly shortened, especially before a new entrance.