Temporal formula
What is the temporal formula?
This formula mathematically expresses the relationship between velocity, time and length of a musical idea.
It is a very useful tool to synchronize our musical piece with the duration of a piece or audiovisual segment.
The temporal dimension of a composition is defined by three basic parameters:
- Length (Li): The number of beats contained in an idea, numbered from 0.
This number of pulses is variable, the more pulses, the longer our idea will last, increasing its time.
- Time (T): It is the duration of the time segment expressed in minutes and seconds.
Time is a magnitude that measures the duration and separation of events. In our daily lives we use the clock to measure time, using hours, minutes and seconds as constant units.
Every musical idea has a duration, which is expressed in these same units.
Sometimes we will have to fit our idea into a specific time frame and it will be very useful to understand this parameter.
- Velocity (V): This is the speed of the composition expressed in pulsations per minute (PPM).
Each idea is built on a constant pulsation (pls) base.The number of pulsations that occur in a minute corresponds to the velocity of the idea.
This speed is measured with what we call pulsations per minute (PPM), so the minute is the unit of measurement.
One pulsation equals one temporal interval (iT) 1, which is the distance between two pulses (P) in a row.
The higher the PPM the more velocity our idea will have.
Although velocity seems to be a constant parameter, depending on the interpretation we give to the music it can become something varied and relative, that is why there are concepts such as fast or slow. In conventional notation, this subjectivity is described with words such as andante or allegro, terms that bring expressiveness to the composition.
USES OF THE TEMPORAL FORMULA
The temporal formula interrelates these three parameters and allows us to vary their values to configure temporal ideas with the characteristics we want.
Starting with the constant 60, which represents the 60 seconds of a minute, this formula interrelates the three variables as follows.This simple equation allows us to clear one of the three unknowns, thus being able to calculate one of these three parameters from the other two.
Therefore, by entering two of the three parameters, the formula will automatically show us the third one, thus configuring the time dimension of our segment.
For example, if we choose a duration of 2min and a length of 80 beats, the velocity will have to be 40 PPM to make the numbers add up.