Technical Question Regarding Polyrhythms

[dead last]

I have been working on a composition recently. It is the first piece that I have composed on the keyboard, which I am fairly unfamiliar with.

The whole piece is based on a polyrhythmic pattern. The right hand plays a 4-note cycle. The left hand plays a 3-note cycle. By the time the right hand has played 5 repetitions of the 4-note cycle, the left hand has played 4 repetitions of the 3-note cycle. So, by the time a chord change comes around (which is every cycle), the right hand has played 20 notes, and the left hand has played 12 notes. So there is a 5/3 ratio.

My problem begins when I try to transcribe this music electronically. I have a music-writing program that lets you divide rhythms into sections of 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 15. Nevertheless, I CANNOT transcribe this keyboard music into my music player. I guess that I just can not figure the ratio with this program.

Is anyone familiar with such a pattern? I am excited by creating this pattern because it is *impossible* for me to "play in my mind". With every other song that I've heard/composed, I can "play" it to myself in my mind and make adjustments as I see fit before playing it physically. However, with this piece, I can *only* play it physically, and *cannot* "play" through it in my mind.

Has ever such a thing been done before in composition?

Edited August 20, 2013 by dead last

[Rudi]

I have never heard of anything like it.

 

It might be worth re-posting (or linking) in the drums part of this forum. They are more likely to have an informed opinion than most of us here.

 

Sounds interesting.

 

Good luck

 

Rudi

[dead last]

Thank you, I will repost it in the drum section.

[john]

Hi

Actually it is remarkably close to the origins of western song, that of "plain song" or "plain chant", the forerunner of Gregorian Chant. It's been a while since I studied the form (almost 20 years) but beginning with only a single voice it evolved to commonly be made up of 4 voices. It was the first notated music. No meter was used. Each vocal part had it's own melody line and timing, length an repeat. The voices would then weave in and through each other creating interesting combinations. Although section lengths are not identical to yours they are similar in notion. Each is cyclic. If I remember correctly, and I may not be exactly accurate, they worked with an elementary rhythm, compound time and composite rhythm.

You may find this document of interest:

http://media.musicasacra.com/pdf/plainsong.pdf

Modern music notation programmes and sequencers are geared to deal with standard note timing, time signatures and tonality. They don't cater for composition and perform any that is anything less than mass market. That being said I haven't looked for a while, but my guess is you will be looking for a highly specialised "off the beaten track" tool.