Music Listening, Music Therapy, Phenomenology and Neuroscience

The Musical Timespace

56

1'47 Events and movements; the clarinet reappears. 2' 01 New event;

The timbre of flute attracts attention. 2'10 the oboe attracts attention.

2'27 Soloists disappear, background reappears.

2'52 Movement time: Clarinet, flute, oboe and a violin are linked in a

slow-moving melody.

3'14 Pulse time emerges discreetly in piano rhythms.

3'30 Background reappears.

4'02 Movement time: Slow clarinet melody and quiet piano appear, conti-

nued by clearly forward-directed movement in clarinet at 4'18, leading to

4'22 Salient pulse time in ragged piano rhythms, competing with

several layers of movement.

4'40 Pulse time is reintroduced by high clarinet with piano pulse, on a

dense background of movements. New pulses are introduced, 4'54

trombone, 4'58 drums, 5'05 flutes, 5'07 trumpet, and a chaos of compe-

ting pulses and movements increases, accelerating to a climax at 5'20.

5'25 The strings, largely drowned out and forgotten, reappear. After

the preceding chaos, they seem to adopt the quality of an ever-present

natural background sound, and movement time gives way to the time

of being.

6'02 and 6'22 The slow movement time of clarinet, flute and violin is

now nearly absorbed in the background time of being which continues

in a standstill on the first chord of the string cycle.

66

The concept of timespace

In the works discussed in the present chapter, different kinds of spatial and

temporal experience can be distinguished.

Predominant spatial qualities are evoked in The Unanswered Question by

the widespread sustained major chords of the strings, and in Central Park

in the Dark by the soft, slowly changing complex chord colors.

Examples of spatial-temporal qualities are found in events and move-

ments appearing in these works, such as the distinct gestalt of Ives'

trumpet question and the fluid tunes heard in Central Park.

.

The qualities of events and movements are spatial as well as temporal.

Events stand out as a musical foreground, evoking a spatial perspective

between foreground and background. Movement creates the spatial

impression of direction towards a goal. Movement implies the temporal

quality of duration, and a distinct event implies the temporal quality of

attentive expectation.

Predominant temporal qualities are heard in the march-like rhythms

emerging in Ives' The Unanswered Question and the ragged piano rhythms

reaching Central Park in the Dark.

Relations between spatial and temporal qualities appear from the

following schematic arrangement;

Spatial quality Spatial- temporal Temporal quality

is predominant qualities are present is predominant

no tempo or variable salience clearly marked

very slow tempo of tempo tempo

The time of being The time of movement The time of pulse

prevails and events prevails prevails

inconspicuous perceptible perceptible

change change regularity

Fig. 4.2. Relations between spatial and temporal qualities