One could go on and on seeking out the levels on which rhythmic activity spurs musical movement and the life of the listener/player. Nowhere is it better expressed than in African drumming.
I find it ironic that so much music pedagogy is involved with simplifying rhythm rather than making it as full of variables as possible.
Is this because physical coordination is so difficult? That is no excuse.
If kept in perspective, the rhythmic complexities actually have the power to solve coordination problems: responding to movement that we feel (as opposed to beats that we measure) can unleash inhibitions, releasing muscular responses over which we have no conscious control.
Now that's music.
