Rhythm is everywhere

Rhythm is an element of nature, and the whole universe responds to it. The periodic movements of the constellations must be rhythmical or the solar systems would be annihilated; the return of the seasons, the rising and setting of the sun, the rising and falling of the tides, all are rhythmical; the pulse of life is rhythm, for rhythm is the pulsation of every kind of movement and pulsation the rhythm of everything that has life. It is therefore no strange thing that man, when performing any recurring movement, should naturally fall into doing it rhythmically; he cannot avoid it, for rhythm helps him, makes it easier, as it has a momentum of its own.
The march is an evolution of the measured step of warriors or priests, the dance is an evolution of the measured movements of the body under mental or emotional excitement, and the most intricate modern musical rhythms have been evolved from these primitive sources.
Walking is the most rhythmical exercise; the free movement of the feet and legs, the relaxed swing of the arms, and the regular inhaling and exhaling of the breath, should produce balanced physical rhythm. When this is not so, there is something wrong with the organism; an unrhythmical gait is one of the surest symptoms of a mental or physical defective.



How Music Works: a programm about Rhythm

Rhythm is simply balance, as necessary in the physical sphere as in the mental and emotional spheres; in music and poetry it is the balancing of one strong beat or part against one or two weak beats or parts. It is necessary to language in the same sense that as a rhythmical arrangement of inarticulate sounds (tones) produces music, so a rhythmical arrangement of articulate sounds (words) produces the cadences of prose and poetry.
If the fundamental idea of rhythm is pulsation, the next idea should be order, for rhythm brings order into every kind of movement. When exemplified in the arrangement of matter into visible objects, as in sculpture and architecture and other plastic arts, rhythm is translated into symmetry. Symmetry is one of the chief requisites of a work of art; it is as necessary to that art which appeals to the eye as to that which appeals to the ear – as in music and poetry.