Cycles of Life and Polyrhythm

Let's just dive straight into it: Circadian Rhythm. First of all, we have an internal body clock that functions on a cycle of about 24 hours. All living things on Earth share this rhythm: animals, plants, and even mold! This cycle governs far more than our sleeping and eating habits. Based on consistent factors like hormone levels, body temperatures, and blood pressure, our bodies have optimal times of the day for focus, exercise, alertness, and coordination. All these qualities truly dictate how we spend time which amounts to what experiences we have and cultivate in our lives, making us who we are.

What's interesting is that these changes are happening in all of our bodies every day: We are synched, whether we like it or not. What does that tell us? I like to use this information as inspiration to really soak in the power of the sun, because the sun is the consistent reference point at the center of all of this cyclic change and motion. As we've been exploring, all of music and time has a steady central reference point: the pulse. So if life were a song, the sun would be the pulse.

Oh that shining beauty! You can always count on the sun, our undoubtable source of light, warmth, and all life. We revolve around it at a steady rate, and we rotate toward and away from it at another steady rate. Does this not sound like a polyrhythm? Or in another context a subdivision?

Imagine that the cycle of the year –one resolution around the sun– is a rhythmic pattern. Now imagine that that rhythmic pattern is 24 bars long, as in 2 bars per month. That would make each day about the speed of a sixteenth note! Of course this is a theoretical way of thinking, but perhaps it's insightful to imagine that some sixteenth notes are high, others are low, some are rests, others are part of longer notes, some are in the middle of a phrase and others at the beginning or end of a phrase. Some of these notes hit really hard and others are whispers. But no matter how we play it, we’re always somewhere in the 24 bar song. It’s music, so variation and expression is needed, but so is consistent rhythm and steady pulse.

When we look at the cycles of life as polyrhythmic, things can get pretty fascinating. Phrases are identified, consonance and dissonance are revealed, and the calming trance of rhythm can be counted on. The music of life is always playing, and in this way we can move through life in a cyclic song of artistry.

Written by Ila Cantor