ABSTRACT
The concept of time is one of the most concrete examples of the abstract metaphysical concept of order. The Platonist conception of time is cyclical, seeing in the endless repetitions of the motions of the heavenly bodies, and therefore also of the days, months and seasons, the moving image of eternity itself. The concept of time emerges as the most concrete context for understanding the metaphorical significance of music. Taking music seriously as a metaphor of the concept of time, then, means that it is necessary to understand the modern view of time in order to understand what is at stake in the musical metaphor. As Arnold Schoenberg wrote in his 1946 essay, 'New Music, Outmoded Music, Style and Idea', new music 'differs in all essentials from composed music'. The temporal foundation of classical music, the Christian conception of time emerges as the far more important context in comparison with any generalized Aristotelian teleology.
