Free Rhythm: the embodiment of the ineffable. It requires a deep understanding of the theory of music, and the instruments used to execute effectively, and avoid being viewed as children’s play. This is a type of rhythm that needs to be felt but can’t be. Breaking away from structure itself, and allowing for a deeper form of expression, free rhythm is utterly unique, while not being region specific as it is shared in many places worldwide.
Free Jazz is possibly one of the most expressive forms of music--and the human spirit-- in Western/American culture. Jazz can be the purest form of chaos and confusion without being subject to poor quality, and evoke/release raw emotions. Free Jazz and Jazz music itself, is an American made music style from New Orleans, and originates from African roots with the “blues” and “feel” (rhythm quality) of this iconic music style, whereas the harmonies and the instrumentation of traditional Jazz ensembles come from European roots. Though it is a “messier” music style, with it’s rules varying piece to piece, it also is quintessential to American history.
With Free Jazz’s inception in the late 1940s and early 50s, this remarkable music genre introduced itself as an experimental art form. The focus is on the art and emotion, rather than the harmony and form, as the traditions of Western music have trained us to follow and strive to achieve. Musicians such as John Coltrane, Duncan Lamont, and Lennie Tristano were freely and blatantly ignoring the basic fundamentals of the music genre and creating new boundaries (or rather setting no boundaries at all). No clear tempo was established, and no music was laid before the performers, much of what was played is atonal, or lack of following a key set by a composer. Free Jazz can be defined as atonal polyrhythmic improvisation. Many “untrained” listeners only hear background noise, or as some say “an extended warm-up for the band.” This is where the beauty of the art of Free Rhythm lies: it breaks the standard thinking of music, where literally anything is possible, true freedom to play out the pent up energy felt in a musician’s being, as demonstrated by Coltrane’s Ascension.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks of Jazz as being wrought with the hard realities of life, “Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music...”(See importance of Jazz here). Whereas Louis Armstrong defines Jazz as “a variety of all good music”.
Free Rhythm doesn’t just exist within music either, it can be experienced in poetry as well. Poetry is surrounded with rhythm and rhyme, and with 6,500 different languages, there is an endless amounts of ways to express emotion (like Jazz) through poetic form. Though our western ears aren’t trained to listen to poems as we listen to music, poetry holds similar qualities to that of music. There is a limit of time, a “flow” or “feeling” of the poetry, there is a medium of which to express the meaning (in this case, the human voice and words), there are patterns, and of course, people go around the patterns to create something new.
But because of Poetry’s roots, and because it is highly respected when there is a form, will there be poetry that is built around free rhythm? Just as there is with music, poetry does have a free rhythm genre. Starting in the 20th century, “free verse”, or poetry without a form, became widely popular in western society due to it’s lack of rules that allowed expression through poetry like never before. Even the poem in the link above for “Lost Voices” is considered “free verse poetry.” However, it still has a rhythm within it. This next poem, however, is void of rhythm entirely, and is almost as if the reciter is just venting to the listener.
So in a way, poetry and musical art form in terms of rhythm have similarities. Whatever the case may be, we are programmed to make patterns, but culturally we are trying to break this habit. Through analyzing and listening to the evolution of jazz, and opening our minds to poetry in terms of music, we are discovering the limitless possibilities that free rhythm grants.
Sources Used
Youtube for Video Links
Jazz In America powered by Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz (http://www.jazzinamerica.org/lessonplan/5/1/249) for history check
Credits
Idea: Erika Query and Nick De Los Santos
Introduction: Nick De Los Santos
Jazz Section of piece :Erika Query and Nick De Los Santos
Poetry Section: Erika Query
Conclusion: Erika Query
Video Links: Erika Query and Nick De Los Santos
Pictures: Erika Query
Final Overview and Edits: Erika Query and Nick De Los Santos
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