The dimensions of music
Music is an art that is perceived in an abstract way. abstractlyIf we observe it objectively, we can describe it as «sounds ordered in time».
To facilitate its description, we propose to imagine music as any object, with specific characteristics that we define and measure as precisely as possible.
By observing the characteristics of music, we can perceive and measure many aspects of its nature: timbre, dynamics, texture, rhythm, sound heights, etc. We call each of these aspects a dimension, and each dimension has its own characteristics and measurements.
In the Nuzic system we focus on two dimensions that appear in its most immediate observation:
- the temporal dimension (dT) → is the dimension that describes the rhythm of the sounds, measuring their location in time and their duration. Given the nature of time always in motion, this dimension is flexible.
- the sound dimension (dS) → is the dimension that describes the heights of sounds by measuring their vibrational frequencies, in a static way (without taking into account their rhythm).
We represent these 2 dimensions of music by means of a musical coordinate plane (MCP), where we place the different measurements and elements that describe it.
The vertical axis corresponds to the sound dimension and the horizontal axis to the time dimension. The points on the resulting plane are the result of the measurements made in each dimension, and correspond to sounds located in time.
In the Nuzic system we want to create a parallelism between the two dimensions: in each dimension we have the same kinds of
elements
y
sets
and each dimension is like a mirror of the other. In any case, the symmetry of music is imperfect, as in nature, since each dimension has its own peculiarities.
As we have seen, to help us describe music well, we break down its characteristics and measure them separately, but in reality the musical dimensions are always integrated in symbiosis.
The Nuzic system allows us to explore music from 3 perspectives; temporal, sonic and symbiotic (both dimensions integrated).