The Importance Of Rhythmics In Music

One very crucial and evident part of all music is rhythm. Without rhythm, there wouldn’t be music. Oliver Sacks, a clinical professor of neurology, describes the importance and power rhythm truly has, as he sees first hand how it can affect the human mind and body. “This motor power of rhythm may be especially strong in various forms of motor and impulse disorder—and music can indeed be therapeutic here. Thus, patients with parkinsonism, in whom movements tend to be incontinently fast or slow or sometimes frozen, may overcome these disorders of timing when they are exposed to the regular tempo and rhythm of music. The eminent (and now parkinsonian) composer Lukas Foss, for example, whom I saw recently, may festinate or rocket almost uncontrollably to his piano, but once he is there, can play a Chopin nocturne with exquisite control and timing and grace—only to festinate or freeze once more as soon as the

But it also demonstrates how incredibly powerful musical rhythm can be. The fact that music and rhythm can do this at all is amazing within itself, and it one example of the power of music.

Emotions are very real to us, and music seems to always be the thing that people turn to when wanting emotional boosts. When people find themselves at a low, or in a state of sadness, music is often found as a solution to help. Professor Sacks talks about this emotional power it has in a book titled Brain, Volume 129, written by a large variety of authors. “But music can also be