THOUGHTS ON THE CONCEPT OF TIME BETWEEN SCIENCE AND MUSIC
Cultural Association “Tullio Crali” - via Ascoli 1, Gorizia (Italy) - Monday, November 23rd.  2009,   17:30

In the understanding of natural phenomena, it happens very often to face the problem of the distinction and apparent contradiction between what happens in the frame of human perception and what really happens in the physical world. The theme of this meeting - nature and perception of musical tempo - fully reflects this problem. In fact, the art of music precisely succeeds in combining the complementary perspectives of the subjective and the objective with exceptional effectiveness. The peculiar aspect of music, with respect to other perceptive facts, is its developing into the temporal dimension. The three principal aspects in which this happens concern the temporal duration of single sounds, the rhythmic organization given by a sequence of more sounds following each other during time, and the local time variations given by the needs of artistic expression. The physical properties of music, such as the duration of single sounds, the rhythm and the timbre, are transformed into emotions for the listener. This talk has the purpose of explaining how it happens, in scientific terms and under the light of most recent discoveries, in a perspective comparing our culture with other cultures.