What is musical time?

Time flows very differently in the musical experience than it does in everyday life. Much of music's magic comes from its influence on our perception of time. It is through the time of music that we can experience timelessness.

In this article series, I'll point specifically to the (supercool) phenomenon where relationships between tones in tonal music affect our perception of the flow of time. The ideas here in this piece are useful because you share a love for music, and because you're someone who has touched eternity.

Understanding time is such a deep question for musicians because time concerns everything we create. Everything exists in time, including our lives and the sound relations that make up the musical experience. Yet, the transcendent experiences of awe and beauty and truth live in a dimension outside of time, and relate to everything in time.

It is sometimes said that music is an art of time. The tones and rhythms that build a piece come and go, but the relationships betwee…