ABSTRACT
The origin of time is considered to be experienced change, which, coupled with scientific method and instrumentation, produces an objective clock time. Musical time differs from scientific time in several ways: it is composed rather than received; its subjective interpretation is not necessarily bound by physical experience; it can be regarded as multidimensional; it has intrinsic cyclic aspects; and it draws on a wider range of sources, such as culture, environment, the body, conceptual operations, and interpersonal interaction in performance. Its similarities include: the property of ordering of events; measurability; divisibility; the existence of characteristic time scales; relationships with number. Change is classified into rearrangement change and attribute change, a split shown to apply to both musical and scientific time. The utility of two scientific procedures in establishing the nature of musical time is addressed: mathematical formalisms (which may model the temporal processes used by composers), and techniques of cognitive psychology (which may examine the mental representation of time).
