Rhythm, in general, is the orderly repetition of elements that produces the sensation of movement, controlled or measured, sound or visual. Rhythm is considered to mean flow, creep, course; that is, something dynamic. Rhythm is a basic characteristic of all the arts, especially music, poetry, and dance. It can also be detected in natural phenomena. We say, for example, that a sound is rhythmic when it occurs in equal times or in different times that are repeated periodically.
The real movement of things is what the natural rhythm is based on. In nature we find rhythm in the march of the stars, in the succession of the seasons, in the vital cycles of animal or botanical species, in the mechanism of respiration, blood circulation, etc., since they are processes that are carried out regularly, in a fixed order and time. For this reason, whenever we organize things so that there is a constant temporal or spatial relationship between them, or the intervals that separate them are proportional, we will say that they are subject to a rhythm.
Rhythm in music is the ratio of sounds of a certain intensity and duration or of fixed pauses that repeat or alternate every so often. Take into account the regular combination of sounds and silences. All songs and musical pieces have rhythm. The pulse and the accent are indicators of the rhythm that we can mark with claps, steps or percussion instruments, according to the duration of each sound. In painting, sculpture, architecture, and other visual arts, rhythm is determined by the relationships between visual elements and space. It is defined as a succession of lines, masses, shapes, spaces, colors or other elements that are repeated or alternated.
The performing arts such as theater, dance and choreographic dances, present visual rhythms such as the presence, costumes and movements of the actors and dancers, the shapes and colors of the stage, the lighting effects, and in turn rhythms sounds that come from the voices of the artists and the music that accompanies these artistic manifestations. On the other hand, in written prose, the rhythmic impulse determines the balance of sentences and the arrangement of words. Rhythm is an elementary feature that determines the structure of poetry. Rhyme also contributes to the rhythmic effect of poetry.
