Even odd can swing: Traditional Balkan meters and their application to modern jazz drumming

Đokić, Nikola

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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/114379 Copy

Description

Title

Even odd can swing: Traditional Balkan meters and their application to modern jazz drumming

Author(s)

Đokić, Nikola

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Buchanan, Donna

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Spencer, Joel

Department of Study

School of Music

Discipline

Music

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Doctor of Musical Arts

Keyword(s)

• Balkan
• jazz
• drums
• percussion
• meter
• rhythm
• swing
• asymmetric

Language

en

Abstract

This thesis addresses the application of traditional Balkan meters in modern jazz drumming. The two music genres have overlapped since the 1950s on both Balkan and US soil, as jazz music expanded worldwide and incorporated influences from various global musical heritages. Balkan asymmetrical meters have been an inspiration for many jazz musicians ever since: the tension between duple and triple units within the Balkan asymmetrical meters carries their swinging potential and a driving force, providing endless rhythmical and textural possibilities as improvisational support. Rhythmic transcriptions offered in this thesis aim to help drum set players with transferring Balkan asymmetrical meters from traditional percussion instruments, especially tapan, to the modern drum set. The performance practice and the role of the tapan and drum set player in an ensemble echo each other, each providing a steady time feel and initiating creative rhythmic and melodic ideas. By varying the basic rhythmic pattern in real time and interacting with other players simultaneously, both tapan and drum set players can be considered “composers on the spot.” Since listening to Balkan music is an irreplaceable component of learning new meters, sounds, timbres, and forms, an extensive table listing selections of Balkan jazz fusion that feature regional meters, recorded between 1959 and 2021 in the US or the Balkans, is offered in the Appendix, as a useful resource for further research and creative exploration of the Balkan Jazz subgenre.

Graduation Semester

2022-07-21T16:27:45-05:00

Type of Resource

• text
• still image

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/114379

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2022 Nikola Đokić

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