Who Has the Time?

I've been doing some research on the cross-pollination of the musical cultures of Euro-electronic and Traditional African genera for a paper that I'm writing this semester. One of the most striking differences between these groups is the polarity in their concepts of rhythm and time. In Euro-Western music, there is a very measured, structured, more static adherence to the breaking up of time; the African mindset has more of a flow, an improvisational aspect...much like a conversation.

The trigger to the following happened simply when I was driving. I was rushing to pick someone up between church services (you know who you are :) and I said, "I'll be there in three minutes..." It got me thinking: this whole idea of hours, seconds and minutes is a western convention, isn't it? The breaking up of time in order to master it; a mindset of control. We can see how it permeates into so many other areas of our culture, the systemization and breakdown of life so that we might grasp contain it.

In contrast is the African mindset. Instead of chopping up the grand flow of time into minutes and milliseconds, there is an idea of, "It'll happen when it happens," or, "We'll be there on this day...at some point." Although it may sound frustrating to the strict punctual types, there seems to be a freedom in this way of thinking. There is an allowance for the small things, an allowance and preparation for spontaneity and improvisation in life.

Many musicological scholars are looking into new ways of representing and explaining the African approach to time and rhythm because the traditional western music-writing methods simply can't comprehend it. New language, new structures, new thinking (for the westerner) must be adopted in order to step into the flow of ancient time and rhythmic practices. And this, for me, is exciting. This is where freshness begins.

I still use (and will continue using) notation to write out rhythmic ideas for rememberance and communication...but learning a new method, a new way of thinking, a new schema for rhythm simply offers, as our animated friend Aladdin would say, a whole new world.

There is a continual de-centralization of thought happening in our world today, which allows for newness to thrive; which morally can go either way, depending on how you look at it.

The question is, after centuries of thinking we had the corner on the market of musical understanding, and being confronted with a foreign outlook that challenges our perspective on life, Who has the time?