How to Use polyrhythm in a Sentence

polyrhythm

noun
  • Lyrics are en Espanol, but your feet won't care a whit once the polyrhythms take over your soul.
    Jessi Roti, Joe Gray, Kori Rumore, chicagotribune.com, 30 June 2017
  • Often, polyrhythms were implied, and then the band quickly started to play outside and around them.
    Giovanni Russonello, New York Times, 31 Jan. 2018
  • What hasn’t changed is the group’s penchant for Caribbean polyrhythms, Afrobeats and Latin-American melodies.
    John Ochoa, Billboard, 23 Sep. 2019
  • Even the vocals are part of the intricate, incessant polyrhythms that make the group’s assault so unforgettable.
    Kevin Williams, chicagotribune.com, 1 May 2018
  • Most tracks rise from a rubbery bottom that provides a bouncy platform supporting all sorts of polyrhythms.
    Jim Fusilli, WSJ, 20 Dec. 2017
  • Backed by funky polyrhythms from Dyson’s sticks, saxophonist Khari Lee blew a serpentine alto solo.
    Dan Emerson, Twin Cities, 16 Oct. 2019
  • The result was a steady stream of polyrhythms, outfitted with skittering variations of timbral color.
    Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, 1 Oct. 2017
  • A half-hour journey through gathering storms of unison drumming, dusty interludes, and bursts of polyrhythms, with Swain’s voice haunting the upper register.
    Zoë Madonna, BostonGlobe.com, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Saxophone, trombone and violin all tangled as the bass and vibraphone built a dicey polyrhythm underneath.
    Giovanni Russonello, New York Times, 12 Dec. 2017
  • After his lessons with Smith, Naqvi was best known as the drummer from Dawn of Midi, a mesmerizing trio that approached polyrhythm with a thrilling, almost scientific tenacity.
    Chris Richards, Washington Post, 20 Dec. 2022
  • There are more layers of vocal melody, more percussion, more polyrhythm, more direct connections to the guitars and horns of African pop, more languages among the lyrics and, of course, enormous soul and annunciatory power in Ms. Kidjo’s voice.
    Jon Pareles, New York Times, 8 June 2018
  • The interesting thing here is that the polyrhythms found in traditional music are fundamentally different than the general 4/4 beat of Western music.
    Katie Bain, Billboard, 12 Sep. 2019
  • His arrangements, with their reverberating acoustics and soft polyrhythms, often evoke bygone Appalachia; his lyrics are mournfully Arcadian in a way that evokes Thoreau.
    Isaac Feldberg, BostonGlobe.com, 26 Apr. 2018
  • But Ode was again a wild card, working yet another polyrhythm of such power that even as Croker was playing beautiful, vibratoless romances, the drummer’s back-line improvisation was more interesting.
    Michael J. West, Washington Post, 19 Sep. 2019
  • Like juju, the style popularized by King Sunny Adé, fuji was originally built upon an embarrassment of pulsing polyrhythms shaped on kit drums, congas, bells, shakers, and talking drums, without much else beyond hectoring call-and-response singing.
    Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader, 5 July 2018
  • The instrumental rockers still pack a punch through core musical ingredients, including electric guitar, bass, drums and saxophone, to produce otherworldly polyrhythms.
    Washington Post, 12 Mar. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'polyrhythm.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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