Leonard Bernstein · 1957 · 3 against 2
The 3 against 2 polyrhythm in America (West Side Story) by Leonard Bernstein
Press play to hear the rhythm isolated. Slow it down, speed it up, or change the counts to feel how it works.
Every player fits the same bar: A splits it into 3, B into 2. They meet on beat 1.
Note: Bernstein alternates the two feels bar by bar; the demo plays them simultaneously so you can compare the groupings directly.
Tempo: Marked "Tempo di Huapango": a fast dance feel where the eighth-note stream stays constant while the grouping flips.
Simplified educational demo, not a transcription of the recording.
Hear the real thing
Playing the track pauses the demo automatically (and vice versa) so they don't fight each other.
What's happening rhythmically
America from West Side Story is the most famous hemiola in musical theatre. Bernstein alternates a bar felt in two (6/8, two groups of three quick notes) with a bar felt in three (3/4, three groups of two), over an identical stream of eighth notes.
The demo plays the two feels at the same time rather than in alternation (three against two over one bar) so you can hear exactly what flips between Bernstein’s bars: same notes, different grouping.
What to listen for
- On the record: the snap between "quick-quick-quick, quick-quick-quick" and "slow, slow, slow"
- In the demo: how both layers agree on the bar but disagree on everything inside it
- The 3:2 hemiola hiding in countless genres, from Baroque cadences to reggaeton