Music, along with all the performing arts, is an art of time; it can only happen and be perceived within time.
Time is a dimension which still puzzles physicists and mathematicians, being so that there is no consensus on its definition. Troublesome as it is, we all agree in the way we experience it: we feel time as a continuous line of events, moving forward and unceasingly carrying us into the future.
But this perception is a mere illusion. As Javier Santaolalla explains, "the Relativity Theory depicts the history of the cosmos, of time, as a frozen block, a block where nothing flows, and there is no movement, and all moments in time are exactly the same".1 According to this theory, the apparent linear nature of time may only lay within our consciousness, the running time is only an illusion of our minds.
In this manner, western music has done little to help us get away from this illusion, if not the contrary. Since the 1600s, western music language has reinforced this idea by being developed in a narrative way, in which the listener is bounded to a line of recurring events, one irremediably following and being affected by the other. The narrative aspect of music is a serious field of study, As Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Katharine Ellis point out, this aspect should be no longer be considered a mere metaphor for describing the unique effect of music in time.2
Musical events 3 occur within a musical space 4 and are emitted by a musical source 5. In a conventional musical event, the listener is immersed in a single dimension of perception built by one sonic space and one sonic source, a dimension in which no matter how fragmented the music is, it will always be perceived as one single narration of events. How can music, by being an art of time, help us to deepen our understanding of the nature of time according to relativistic and quantum physics?
This research involves working out compositional techniques which combine different musical spaces and musical sources in a piece. Through these spaces and sources, I expect to generate alternative timelines of perception; higher dimensions of sound which enable us to expand our understanding of events and of time. By creating a music event which combines multiple sound spaces and sound sources we may be able to get away from the linearity of music perception. The graph in Figure 2 presents different examples of music events ordered according to their proximity6 and temporality7:
The first proposed combination is Live Music and Headphones. Recent studies have proven that music perception is substantially affected when being listened through headphones, which due to their proximity, provide a unique intimate experience hardly obtained through any other sound sources 6.
Besides the spatial aspect, these two sound sources differ in their temporal perception: Live Music irremediably happens and is perceived in the present; on the other hand, music which is reproduced through headphones (or speakers) is perceived in the present but its lack of corporality provides it with an atemporal nature: pre-recorded music has the potential to never happen and to happen perpetually, it exists at all times.
I believe to be it is essential for us to become acquainted with the new concepts of time that relativistic and quantum physics are presenting today. This innovative vision of existence may lead us to expand the horizons of perception, realize our true place in the cosmos, and attain a profound sense of modesty.
Foot notes:
1. Date Un Vlog. Este vídeo sí te va a volar la cabeza: ¿Qué es el TIEMPO? YouTube video, 6:27. November 28, 2018. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTh7PbyyA0I.
2. Nattiez, Jean-Jacques, and Katharine Ellis. Can One Speak of Narrativity in Music? Journal of the Royal Musical Association 115, no. 2 (1990): 241. Published by Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical Association. https://www.jstor.org/stable/766438.
3. A Music Event is understood as any moment where a musical phenomena is perceived by a listener. Eg.: attending to a concert, listening to the radio in the car, streaming a song through earphones, etc.
4. Music Space is understood as any place where music is perceived. Eg. A hall, a club, a car, the street, etc.
5. Music Source is understood as any living or non-living thing which emits music. Eg. Speakers, headphones, performers, animals, etc.
Selected bibliography:
Nattiez, Jean-Jacques, and Katharine Ellis. Can One Speak of Narrativity in Music? Journal of the Royal Musical Association 115, no. 2 (1990): 240-257. Published by Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical Association. https://www.jstor.org/stable/766438.
Zelechowska, Agata, Victoria E. Gonzalez-Sanchez, Bruno Laeng, and Alexander Refsum Jensenius. Headphones or Speakers? An Exploratory Study of Their Effects on Spontaneous Body Movement to Rhythmic Music. Frontiers in Psychology 11 (2020): 698. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00698/full
Cox, Brian, and Jeff Forshaw. Black Holes: The Key to Understanding the Universe. Ireland: William Collins, 2022.