Swinglines : Oxford University Press : 9780197659977 : 0197659977 : 29 Aug 2024 : The way rhythm is taught in Western classrooms and music lessons is rooted in a centuries-old European approach that favors metric levels within a grand symmetrical grid. Swinglines encourages readers to experience rhythms, even gridded ones, as freewheeling affairs irrespective of the metric hierarchy. At its core, this book is a nuts-and-bolts study of durational comparisons in the context of creative expression. It shows that rhythms traditionally framed as "deviations" and "non-isochronous" have their own identities. They are coherent products of precise musical thought and action. Rather than situating them in the neither-here-nor-there, author Fernando Benadon takes a more inclusive view, one where isochrony and metric grids are shown as particular cases within the universe of musical time. Rhythms that do not readily comply with the metered regime are often regarded as anomalies and deformations.