Time’s Arrow is a phrase coined by the British astronomer Arthur Eddington in 1928 to describe the effect of time, forwards and backwards, on physical processes. He noted that the one-way property of time, which has no analogy in space, is found in physics only when observing changes in degrees of randomness in a given system (otherwise known as ‘entropy’). All other physical processes are, in theory, ‘time symmetric’ – in other words, they are the same both forwards and backwards.
Our consciousness, on the other hand, has an acute awareness of the direction of time, as Eddington knew. In terms of human experience (such as the performance of a piece of music) time is irreversible. The arrow of time points from past to future, and the experience of events (or music) unfolding makes no ense at all if it is reversed. To some extent, the process of writing a piece allows the composer to step outside this notion of time and to define relationships that refer both forwards and backwards within the timeline of the music.
The ‘arrow of time’ has been applied to thermodynamics, particle physics, cosmology, acoustics, and many other disciplines. Just as these fields of scientific research look at disparate states and the processes that affect them over time (order versus randomness, heat versus cold, energy versus inertia), my piece explores contrasting musical states where strictly notated rhythms are juxtaposed with more freely improvised sections of music, where order and randomness of pitch co-exist.
Our consciousness, on the other hand, has an acute awareness of the direction of time, as Eddington knew. In terms of human experience (such as the performance of a piece of music) time is irreversible. The arrow of time points from past to future, and the experience of events (or music) unfolding makes no ense at all if it is reversed. To some extent, the process of writing a piece allows the composer to step outside this notion of time and to define relationships that refer both forwards and backwards within the timeline of the music.
The ‘arrow of time’ has been applied to thermodynamics, particle physics, cosmology, acoustics, and many other disciplines. Just as these fields of scientific research look at disparate states and the processes that affect them over time (order versus randomness, heat versus cold, energy versus inertia), my piece explores contrasting musical states where strictly notated rhythms are juxtaposed with more freely improvised sections of music, where order and randomness of pitch co-exist.
| Times Arrow score |
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