Polymeter - Polyrhythm - Changing Meter

[Rick Walker <looppool@cruzio.com>]

  Fabio wrote:
"Yesterday night I was thinking the subject of this discussion is not 
theoretically correct.
Here we are talking about "Polymeter", "Polyrhythm" or "Changing meter", 
as it is the same stuff.  Songs like "Solsbury Hill", Money or 21st 
Century Schizoid Man are just using odd time signatures or changing 
meters: that's neither polymeter, neither polyrhythm..."


Yes,  Fabio,  you are correct but with an explanation.

Thinks like Solsbury Hill are merely Odd Time Signatures,
but it is possible to use different groupings of notes,  2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 
6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, etc.
to create very long Polyrhythmic structures.   It is just that 
juxtaposing these rhythms
takes such a long time that is not possible for human beings to hear them
simultaneously in the case of simple polyrhythms like 3 against 4  or 4 
against 5.

If I play in 84/8  as an example, then I can get polyrhythmic pulses 
that occur
equally in 3, 4 and 7 against each other in much the same way
that 12/8 allows simultaneously even polyrhythmic pulses in 2, 3, 4 and 6

I think any serious discussion of polyrhthyms and polymeters, however,  
naturally
brings up the subject of odd time signatures which is why I didn't trip 
out on the
conversation's accuracy to much.