ABSTRACT
Timing procedures in contemporary music present a highly diversified and complex picture. Next to the numerous new compositional techniques which have been developed and which offer fresh approaches to the organization of time in a musical work on strictly intramusical grounds, we notice that composers make recourse to new exogenous factors which go far beyond the traditional ones, such as the conditions and limitations imposed by dramatic, ritual, descriptive, or other functions assigned to a given piece. The new exogenous factors include, among others, chance operations, biological rhythms, and manipulations afforded by electro-acoustic equipment. Here I choose to focus on one category, which I call “Zeitgebers.” In chronobiology this term is used for the environmental agents which determine the temporal characteristics in the behaviour of organisms; in chronosociology, where it has been adopted too, the term applies to social agents with a similar function. This paper discusses some significant examples of the use of Zeitgebers in avant garde music.
