Manifolds in Time and Space

Summary.

When we say “global music,” we mean several things. Although “global” refers to things which relate to the world geographically, we can also use “global” to describe things that relate to the entirety of something in general. We explain the concept of global-ness using the Earth as an analogy. When looking at a small local region of the earth, say, your backyard, this region appears perfectly flat. The Earth is a collection of many such regions, but has a new characteristic: it is round. We can therefore say that the earth is a global collection of many flat regions. In each chapter of Part VI, we describe a different set of musical ‘regions’ and how they contribute to a global music.

In this chapter, we examine how musical works are global because they may be understood both as a whole and as an interaction of many parts. We also discuss musical time in a similar fashion.