Timing Variations in Two Balkan Percussion Performances

Abstract

Many songs and dance pieces from the Balkan Peninsula employ aksak meter, in which two categorically different durations, long and short, coexist in the sequence of beats that performers emphasize and listeners move to. This paper analyzes the durations of aksak beats and measures in two recorded percussion performances that use a particular aksak beat sequence, long-short-short. The results suggest that the timing of beats varies in conjunction with factors including melodic grouping and interaction among members of a performing ensemble and audience. Timing variation linked to melodic groups occurs on a solo recording of a Macedonian Romani folk song. The performer, Muzafer Bizlim, taps an ostinato while singing, and the timing of his taps seems to mark some local and large-scale group boundaries. Melodic organization also seems relevant to the timing of beats and measures on a recording of Bulgarian percussionist Mitko Popov playing the tŭpan, a double-headed bass drum, in a small folk music ensemble. In Popov's performance, however, timing differences might be related to characteristics of the ensemble dynamic, such as the coordination of multiple musical participants. These interpretations generate possibilities for future study of timing variations in relation to rhythm and meter.

Rhythmic Prototypes Across Cultures

“…However, this wide distribution of isochrony does not preclude other principles of rhythmic organization. For instance, metric cycles may contain non-isochronous beats, which is often the case in musical styles from Scandinavia, the Balkans, Turkey, the Near East, and Australia, among others (see Bates, 2011;Brȃiloiu, 1951Brȃiloiu, /1984Cler, 1994;During, 1997;Goldberg, 2015Goldberg, , 2017Haugen, 2016;Holzapfel, 2015;Johansson, 2009Johansson, , 2017Kvifte, 2007;Marcus, 2007;. Furthermore, isochronous metric beats can contain subdivisions related by complex integer or non-integer ratios; such ''swung'' rhythms feature prominently in the Sahel and Savannah zones of sub-Saharan Africa (Kubik, 2010, pp.…”

Pattern and Variation in the Timing of Aksak Meter: Commentary on Goldberg

“…I will finally discuss implications of Goldberg's and my own analyses for theoretical frameworks of rhythm performance and perception. (Goldberg 2015) and re-analysis (this commentary)…”

“…However, this would seem to require that the metric subpulse really is approximately isochronous, which appears to be true in some cases of aksak rhythm, [5] but not in all, as our example demonstrates. Goldberg (2015) mentions that non-integer ratios are more generally characteristic of regional styles from Macedonia, in contrast to, for instance, Bulgaria. Moreover, the conception of the fast subdivision as elementary reference level runs counter to the common sense of most metric theories, including Goldberg's view of aksak meter, that a beat (pulse, tactus) at the medium level of the metric hierarchy (not the beat subdivision close to the rhythmic surface) represents the main metric reference.…”

Both Isochronous and Non-Isochronous Metrical Subdivision Afford Precise and Stable Ensemble Entrainment: A Corpus Study of Malian Jembe Drumming

“…The main thrust of rhythm research in comparative musicology and ethnomusicology has been to emphasize the dramatic range of cultural diversity and difference, not only in their surface rhythms, but also in the metrical systems that function as frameworks for their rhythm perception and production. It is empirically evident that music in many parts of the world makes structural usage of non-isochronous beats, including northern Europe (Kvifte, 2007 ; Johansson, 2009 ; Haugen, 2014 ), south-east Europe (Brăiloiu, 1984 ; Moelants, 2006 ; Goldberg, 2015 ; Polak, 2015 ), Turkey (Cler, 1997 ; Bates, 2011 ; Holzapfel, 2015 ; Reinhard et al, 2015 ), Egypt and the Arab world (Marcus, 2001 , 2007 ), Central Asia (During, 1997 ), India (Clayton, 1997 , 2000 ), and parts of Africa and its diasporas (Gerischer, 2003 , 2006 ; Polak, 2010 ; Jankowsky, 2013 ; Haugen and Godøy, 2014 ; Polak and London, 2014 ). Both isochronous and non-isochronous beats co-exist in most, if not all, of these regions.…”