Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!auvm!BROWNVM!ST402711
From: ST402711@BROWNVM.BITNET (Tim Johnson)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Subject: Re: time and time again
Message-ID: <ALLMUSIC%90020516410088@AUVM.BITNET>
Date: 5 Feb 90 21:27:48 GMT
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>You can start to read a
>book, stop for a length of time (days perhaps) and then continue reading...
>Try stopping a song in the middle, and starting it up again a couple of days
>later.
>                                                      HD

  This is probably only the result of memory.  That is, we have a better
memory for literature than we do for music.  Thus it is easier to recall
the thread.  However, if I quit in the middle of a sentence or paragraph,
it is very hard to pick up again at the next word and continue later.  I
can only do this by backing up, rereading the sentence from the start,
and recalling the flow of the story.  Furthermore, I would suggest that
with writers for whom the language and wording is as much a part of the
work as the actual "plot," it is *much* more difficult to pick up in the
middle and continue.
  The distinction is further blurred as most of the songs described on
this board last only 5 minutes or so.  I can certainly start at the
second movement of a symphony, recalling the first movement mentally,
(y'know, major themes and such) and pick it up and enjoy it, much the
same way I would pick up a book and continue from chapter 2.
(In fact, I am part of a group that gets together to introduce each
other to classical works once a month or so.  For symphonies, because
of time limitations, we generally only sample a single movement.  While
it is not the same as hearing the whole symphony, it is similar to
reading a chapter from a book.)
  I think that the similarities between time and sequence in music and
literature are striking.  It is only our memory for music vs. literature,
and the comparative scale of music vs. literature which leads to an
erroneous distinction between the two.
  So there!  :-)
                            -Tim