On Time And Music

Do you think music is really dependent on time? Or is it an entity beyond time we experience in time merely because the human mind is limited by time and incapable of functioning beyond it?

I think the latter is the case. And in the greatest masterpieces, this fact becomes crystal clear. Thus pieces like Beethoven's late quartets appear to exist beyond time and be unperturbed by time's ripples. Great music is not time-dependent but is experienced through time simply because we cannot experience it otherwise. Lesser music on the other hand, exists in time and moves through time and fully surrenders to time.

I believe time is merely the surface of music. The true depths of music lie far beyond time.

Uh yeah, time is kind of an important thing where music is concerned 

I think you need a sense of time to create contrasts between hearing the expected and the unexpected, thereby creating drama in music.

Yeah Beethoven's pieces definitely create a crease in the fabric of space and time and exist beyond our time period. 4 dimensions bro 

The author of the OP was simply confused about the fundamental difference between the loss of ability to perceive time accurately and the complete lack of linear succession altogether. 

What I meant is that, even though a piece of music is constructed in time and experienced in time, it might still exist (as a whole) as a creation essentially not dependent on time, just like a sculpture or painting. And I wanted to point out that there are pieces that seem to bear this out, among them Beethoven's late quartets.

What I meant is that, even though a piece of music is constructed in time and experienced in time, it might still exist (as a whole) as a creation essentially not dependent on time, just like a sculpture or painting. And I wanted to point out that there are pieces that seem to bear this out, among them Beethoven's late quartets.

Well, every composition is fundamentally dependent on time because it is necessary to be experienced in the first place. Sound cannot be experienced independent of time. There are composers who wrote music that conceals the rate in which time passes that also prevents any sense of proportion, however their music still exists in time and is still quite dependent on it. There is as much dependency on time as there is in music which 'climaxes' precisely at the beginning of its golden section.