Time and timing in music

Musical and neurological aspects

David Epstein

pp. 153-162

in: Hellmuth Petsche (ed), Musik — Gehirn — Spiel, Basel, Birkhäuser, 1989

Abstract

As Professor Rentschler has indicated, I wear several musical hats. I think they are healthy hats. I perform music, and as I examine scores, because I have a composer's training, I find my self thinking about structure, logic and matters of form. Without these concerns I think it is impossible really to interpret a work. For without these concerns one glides over the music the way a boat glides over water — beautifully, perhaps, but not necessarily with direction. It has been this process of performing with compositional concerns in mind that has led me to the kinds of studies that find me here today.