# Natural phenomena and their representation in musical principles



## Andreas (Apr 27, 2012)

Sorry for the bloated title. I swear I tried to find a catchier one for this but couldn't.
My idea was to look at a couple of basic principles that one can observe in nature and then see how they are represented in music. Such as the following:

Repetition.
Our heartbeat and breath are prime examples of the same thing repeating over and over again. High frequencies of multiple repetitions per minute. Granted we don't necessarily notice them, but they are essential to the way our bodies work. But it's also how we spend most of our lifes. Take any given day, and I'd guess around 90% of what you did during that day was a near-exact repetition of what you did the day before. Everyone can name at least a dozen things they do every single day. We organize our lives in terms of familiarities and repetitions. And isn't that very similar to the way we organize music?

Evenness.
First, I was looking for steadiness, as represented in music by a firm beat or a time signature. But I couldn't think of much that was really all that steady in that metronome-like sense. But one can also think of steadiness as even distribution. A firm beat of a piece of music represents an even distribution of beats over the duration of the piece. And nature is full of examples of even distribution. Trees in a forest, crops in a field, the hair of a fur - all very evenly distributed over the area they cover.
Moreover, I think we often imagine a firm, steady rhythm where there is not necessarily one. When one takes a walk, one probably perceives the steps one is taking as very steady and even and rhythmical.

Acceleration/Deceleration.
Slightly the oppostite of steadiness, but in away closely related to it, or even dependent on it. Rubato only makes sense when there is a fixed rhythm in contrast to which rubato occurs. Now, I find that the most immediate experience of acceleration and deceleration is that of the heartbeat and the breath. Directly linked to experiences of tension, energy, excitement/aggravation.
What seems to be important here is that while changes in tempo (of heartbeat and breath) can be sudden and rapid, they are still gradual and not entirely erratic (except perhaps for heart attacks). There's always am element of portamento, is you like, to the changes in tempo, even when their very rapid.

Cyclicity.
I had to check if this is a real word, and Google suggests it is. Our experiences of time is cyclical: a day, a month, a year - those are all natural cycles. The idea that there is no beginning and no end, or that the two coincide at any given point in time. The idea that you eventually return to where you started. In musical terms: the notion of reprises, of a home key, or any arch-like structures.

Beginning and end.
A very human way of looking at life, based on concepts of birth and death and the individual being. One problem is that one of course does not remember ones birth. The beginning of our lfe is the beginning of our memory, but there was also something before that. Could this be related to the concept of introductions? A beginning before the beginning? And as far as the end, that is death, is concerned, one thing is clear: all pieces of music must end at some point. Pop music has invented the fade-out, which implies endlessness: the listener wanders off and leaves the music behind, which keeps playing but gradually becomes quieter and quieter with growing distance. But in classical music? Tchaikovsky's 6th? Or Mahler's 9th? Not a fade-out but a dissolution of life, until the degree of the lowest possible density is reached. I understand that's also the way the universe will eventually "end".

Transformation.
A concept that's very familiar to us. A seeds turns into a flower and then into a fruit. Quite a transformation. We subject it to further transformation if we proceed to eat that fruit. However, I'd still reckon that most of what we perceive in nature is surrounded by an aura of eternity. The sky, the mountains, the oceans. Even during an entire human lifetime one only gets to see a snapshot of the evolutionary state that nature is at. Maybe that is partly why the sonata form with its central development section, in which the transformation of things is presented, was a late invention.

If anyone's interested on sharing their views on this, they're more than welcome!


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

You may find it useful to look at this paper, which is really about baroque harpsichord technique, but there are ideas in there which seem to overlap with what you're getting at. Ideas like tension, roughness.

This is a big and interesting area I think.

http://www.musicalratio.com/gpage.html


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