College of Music Professor of Music Theory Daphne Leong.We all know about rhythm in music: Just count to four. Accent the second and fourth beats, bob your head in time and shake those shoulders. If it鈥檚 in three beats, start waltzing. Simple, right? Well, guess again. Do you know about asymmetrical meters, ametric music, polymeter, metric modulation, timeline notation and feathered notes?
When it comes to 20th- and 21st-century music, Professor of Music Theory Daphne Leong鈥攁long with her colleagues in the world of rhythm in music performance and scholarship鈥攅ngages in intense research and endless experimentation which brought her to Montreal鈥檚 McGill University for a recent residency. In the midst of it, she served as director of a three-day conference in September, 鈥�.鈥�
Leong introduces Miles Okazaki鈥攇uitarist and composer, Princeton University鈥攁t last month鈥檚 鈥淩hythm in Music since 1900鈥� conference, Schulich School of Music, McGill University.鈥淚t was all about rhythm in concept and practice,鈥� says Leong. 鈥淲e brought in performers from different genres鈥攋azz, rock, shakuhachi (a traditional Japanese flute). We had a fantastic lecture-recital on how to understand and perform rhythm in Iannis Xenakis鈥� music. It was a collaboration among performance, scholarship and pedagogy.鈥� While at McGill, she held the title of Distinguished Visiting Professor and Schulich Dean鈥檚 Chair in Music. Leong has served on our faculty at the CU Boulder College of Music since 2000.听
McGill percussionists perform Xenakis鈥� 鈥淧eaux.鈥�A native of Saskatchewan, where she earned an undergraduate degree in piano performance, Leong continued her studies at the Eastman School of Music before arriving in Boulder. Growing up in Canada proved helpful, incidentally, since the start of her McGill residency in January kicked off with record snowfall. No biggie for her.
Good thing she was able to get around in all that nasty weather, since Leong says she was kept very busy in Montreal. Besides planning and directing all the activities of the heavily attended international conference, she also managed to teach a graduate seminar and collaborate with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media and Technology (CIRMMT), a hi-tech facility located on the McGill campus. 鈥淚 designed a pilot experiment for them that involves performers,鈥� she says.听
Leong shares about the wide-ranging subject covered in the September conference at McGill, beginning by voicing a seemingly simple question: 鈥淗ow do we understand rhythm?鈥� She follows up her question with another: 鈥淒o we play rhythm exactly as written?鈥� Of course, there鈥檚 more to it than that. 鈥淎ll composers are open to interpretation,鈥� she reminds us, also referencing some of the rhythmically inventive 鈥渙ld-school鈥� composers of the last century: Gy枚rgy Ligeti, Conlon Nancarrow, Steve Reich and others. She further mentions the new generation of music makers of the current century鈥攐nes who are moving beyond the boundaries pushed by those earlier pioneers鈥�, giving special attention to fellow Saskatchewanian Nicole Liz茅e, a featured participant听in听the McGill conference.
Now back in Boulder, Leong isn鈥檛 done traveling. In early December, she鈥檚 off to California to join Tak谩cs Quartet members in a Bart贸k symposium, presented in conjunction with the quartet鈥檚 complete Bart贸k series at San Jose State. 鈥淭his won鈥檛 be held just with academics in attendance,鈥� she stresses. 鈥淢embers of the public will be there, too, providing their impressions.鈥�
