The ability of music to install us in a continuous present is explored. Following Zuckerkandl, the musical whole is conceived as a field of forces, defined by the tensive relations among its constituent tones. Whether performing or only listening, in the true music experience our locus is always between tones, in the passage from one dynamic quality or state of incompleteness to the next. The moment-duration opens to cycle in tandem with the tonal design it embraces, tracking it from dynamic value to dynamic value, tracking “now.” Since waking time-outs from ordinary time may have a holistic healing function, music, as the most powerful medium of these events, may, after all, have survival value.
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