It moves from beginning to end with tempo, rhythm, harmony, and melody:
Tempo: A characteristic rate or rhythm of activity; a pace
Human tempo is based on the revolution of the Earth. The day night cycle controls every aspect of human endeavor. Days turn into weeks, months and years.
Rhythm = A regular pattern of elements such as words, phrases, incidents, themes, images, and symbols.
Human rhythm exists on many levels. From the personal experience of time moving slowly or fast, to patterns of civilization.
The rhythm of an individual life is unique. It has its own time signature. Sometimes time flies, and sometimes it drags, depending on a variety of factors. This life rhythm overlays the deeper structure of the tempo of the world, like waves on the surface of a stream. The same can be said of the overall rhythm of human society over time. The peaks and valleys of historical significance.
Harmony = A pleasing combination of elements in a whole
Harmony is simultaneity and synchronicity.
An orchestral music score illustrates this concept. Each measure is a snapshot of every moment, and can be broken down into its constituent parts. The various parts of the symphony Conductor’s Score show precisely what notes each instrument is playing in each measure (moment) simultaneously. The counterpoint of notes represent the various combinations of possibilities that can exist in each moment. Ambiguity achieved through transformations and deletions of notes, represents the ambiguity (unknown factors) inherent in any given moment.
Harmony is Consciousness.
As the measures of music notation represent a traveling focus on the Now, so does our consciousness through time.
The last measure of music (the one we just heard) is the past, and the next one is the future. The one we hear, with all of the simultaneous varieties of the moment, is the Now.
Written music is an analogy to Einstein’s Block Theory of space-time, in that everything about it can be seen by an outside observer, but only experienced one measure at a time from within, as our consciousness reads the music of reality.
The ability to describe both words, Time and Music, with similar language is what makes the metaphor work for me.
As Melody = A rhythmically organized sequence of single tones so related to one another as to make up a particular phrase or idea. Structure with respect to the arrangement of single notes in succession.
As Time = A rhythmically organized sequence of moments so related to one another as to make up a particular perception of reality. Structure with respect to the arrangement of moments in succession.
We mimic nature. We fly like birds, we swim like fish, we control light, we sculpt matter. We re-create what we see around us in nature, and perhaps Music is the result of human beings attempting to create and control a microcosm of Time.
