On Polymeters

Yes, let's cross meters. In short, polymeters can be described as two or more meters played simultaneously. For example, a melody in six eight juxtaposed with another melody in eleven eight. The idea is beautifuly simple, but a little hard to cognate.
 The problem being, we are used to hearing one discernable melody at a time. This is not to say as an audience the population cannot enjoy polyphony, only that the mind is tweaked to 'focus' our ears on one particular line at a time. It is the same as trying to listen to two conversations at once. Now, when a melody is harmonised with a countermelody in the same time, the mind recognises both, but either focuses on one or creates a combination of the two. This is similar to homophony, the mind recognises and follows the harmonic structure, but only notices the subtleties in one part at a time. With polymeters, the mind tends to either listen to one melody at a time and ignore the other or create a framework around points at which the meters match up. In our example above, six and eleven eight, every six bars of eleven, the two parts will match up again.
 Why, other than simply to experiment, would we use this? The answer is all texture and interest. In popular music we are so used to hearing what we expect in music, when something out of the ordinary comes along our auditory circuits are very excited:


In the above example, the guitar line is in 9/4 while the drum and bass parts are in 4/4. Philip Glass experiments with polymeters, although is better known for incremantation of meter between sections.
 Anyway, there's some food for thought. Try writing two parts, one in 5/4, the other in 13/8 and make it sound delish.

Bayartai