The Musical as Drama

continues beating. Numbers are based on the time of repeti-
tion, and we hardly ever think about this, perhaps because we
have a vested interest in progress. Good for the sunrise, we say,
good for the heartbeat, but we have to get on with shaping a
future. So we go ahead making progress—until a song crosses
our minds, or we get caught up in a dance, or do anything mu-
sical. There are other ways of repetition that can stop us in our
tracks, but music is the way that matters in the songs and dances
of number time. These interruptions to book time deepen and
complicate the musical, and they are the events that need to be
understood in the aesthetics of the form.

THE BOOK AND THE NUMBERS 53