ABSTRACT
The traditional role of rhythm has been subjected to profound and wide-spread reassessment, engendered not only by Stravinsky and Olivier Messiaen, but by the rediscovery of techniques derived from the Medieval and Renaissance periods, as well as from different folk musics and non-Western traditions. Maurice Ohana conceived his approach to rhythmic structure in terms of the juxtaposition of texture and timbre. Ohana’s ‘masse sonore’ applied not only to the harmonic ‘trail or shadow’ but also to the creation of rhythmic sound-texture, a concept which has parallels with the radical innovations of Varese, whose music Ohana knew and admired. The most decisive influence on Ohana’s rhythmic vocabulary came from his knowledge of Spanish folk and African tribal music. While the rhythmic cells can be traced back to their Spanish and African sources, the ways in which they are extended and combined, particularly in layers of aleatory counterpoint, owes much to the improvisatory procedures of folk music.
