Introduction

The work of this introductory chapter is twofold; first, to provide a brief historical overview of the changing nature and conception of musical time over the last 2,000 years, and second, to set out the arc of the volume through detailing the central points of each chapter. While the individual pieces of writing bring vital and varied perspectives from musicology, ethnomusicology, philosophy, psychology, and sociocultural work, what unites them is their attention to music of the modern period, with a strong focus on the multiplicities of contemporary practice, while also pointing to their nineteenth-century antecedents. In introducing the main themes of the book, the introduction calls attention to the burgeoning scholarship on time in music, ranging between the immediate feelings and socialities of being in time with others and the broader imaginings of the cultural politics of time in music.