Time is very much based upon perception. Time can fly when you’re having fun, or can drag on and on when you’re in a situation you don’t want to be in. Therefore, time has a connection to your feelings and perceptions. Music too has a connection to your feelings. Music can trigger memories that take you back to a certain point in your past or expected future, and can trigger those same feelings that you had at that point in your life. Music’s tempo also has an effect on your feelings. When you listen to a song that has a fast tempo, you often feel excited. When you listen to a song with a slow tempo, it can calm you down.
I think that time is manifested in music. In a lot of instances, the lyrics of a song tell you a story. When you listen to that song, you’re transported back to that moment in history, or to the anticipated event in the future. A chant, like the ones we’ve listened to in class, take us back to the early centuries when monks would chant in a church. Or the song “Life is Beautiful” by Vega4 takes me back to a retreat I went on my junior year of high school. Time and memory are very interconnected, and because music has this profound effect of making us remember events in our lives and hear about events in other people’s lives, I think time is manifested best in music.