A

David

Darling

polyrhythmic

Music is said to be polyrhythmic if two or more rhythms or meters are superimposed in a single passage, one pulling against the other(s). Masters of polyrhythm in the 20th century include Stravinsky, Bartók, and György Ligeti. In the "Procession of the Sage" from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, tubas play a sixteen-beat figure three times, horns play an eight-beat phrase six times, a guiro plays eight pulses to the bar, the timpani play twelve pulses to the bar, and so on.