OK, I think this needs to be widened out to include more views, more
experience, as it's well able to do, without sacrificing specificity.
Particular thanks to Paul A. Green of Not-Peterborough for working in
the line about "if you gotta ask, you ain't got it!" - and back to the
fray...
On Wed, 3 Nov 1999 23:47:54 +0900, you wrote:
>Arbitrary in the sense that how we decide upon what is rhythm is capricious.
- speak for yourself, sunshine: I spent a good deal of time working
out what rhythm is for me, and, like everything else, it gets
re-appraised in the usual fieldwork situation on a basis which can
only be described as "ongoing". Changing; developmental even - but I'd
hate to go to work with basic tools which allowed themselves to become
"arbitrary".
>Looking at the three examples provided by Richard, I noticed a problem with
>syntax. I mean that the syntactical arrangement of the words stops the
>flow --turns off the proverbial tap, it is deliberate -- I hope. In fact it
>sounds a little awkward to put it bluntly.
- well, allowing their sytactical awkwardness(es) for a moment, I was
pointing them out for their approach to _rhythm_. Now rhythm, rhyme,
syntax and other elements of structure interact, for sure, in an
intricate catscradle the tensions of which either do or don't keep the
package together - but when I'm talking 'bout rhythm, I'm talking of
the beat, the thump: the differences in approach thereunto, I was
suggesting, were instructive.
>In the poem which I wrote at
>break-neck speed (without a doughnut I hasten to add) I considered short
>range and long range sounds
- ok, some of those sound elements, to me, seemed to hinge on things
outside rhythm per se. But I like the argument between short- and
long-range patterning, and I think that brings in a useful point about
structure: how an element of repetition or patterning can make its
mark over a long space (in a larger structure). It's often said, oh,
but one doesn't recognise such patterning on hearing, the listeners'
attention doesn't work that way - and perhaps that's true in some
cases - however, in my experience, it can still count, work OK: long
range patterning can make good structure, even if it's not (by
definition) immediate.
RC
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