Like all animals, early humans had to accurately interpret sounds.  It was an evolutionary necessity to be able to distinguish a bird's song from a sabertooth's growl, thus we learned to follow frequency, overtones, and other nuances embedded in the little pulses of air that we now call sound waves.  Our abilities grew into our most primal and basic two-dimensional “Audio Window” [tracking frequency (pitch) and other nuances over time].  Eventually, we had fully mastered basic sound perception and began to use sound creatively.

Beyond survival, we begin to enjoy sound via rhythm and dance in this era.  In short, music begins with beats, and rhythm remains a critical aspect of almost all music to this day.  Though not yet notated in this era, we begin to use complicated rhythmic cycles (unique to humans!).  Our rudimentary “Audio Window” has expanded to include rhythmic structures flowing and repeating through time (the animation flipbook analogy applies... we now make our own "movies" within our expanded audio window).

"Inside the Box" Blog link under construction...

As early as the ancient Greeks, we begin to write down our melodies and analyze our tuning systems.  By the time the Catholic Church emerges, we are drawing melodic curves on paper to help us remember increasingly complex chants.  This is common long before we segment the melodies into distinct pitches via modern notation.  Seeing the patterns on the page helps us to hear repeated or emphasized melodic contours.  Once we find one that sticks and carries power, it becomes thematic.  We now begin to perceive and notate a refined “Audio Window 2.0” (a.k.a. early standard notation).

Now we have the discovery of the hidden framework of the musical universe and the physics of sound.  Two competing interests emerge (harmony vs. counterpoint) but the masters have their cake and eat it too.  They play distinct pitches just long enough for you to perceive each in relation to the others, then each layer jumps up or down a few notches on a predetermined scale.  Eventually, the fully boxed in nature of well-tempered tuning actually frees the music.  We can even draw curves again using linear approximation, creating tension and release patterns that are at once microscopic and global.

Industrialization fuels the modern orchestra.  The 3D “Audio Window” emerges, with instruments positioned on stage to create 3-D depth in the sound image.  For Mozart and some others, there is possibly even a 4-D element (he seems to be stretching the very space around his musical structures).  We feel larger tensions and releases but also learn the limits governing our “Audio Window”.  The implications for composers are canonized and taugh for generations: limits of taste/volume; limits of harmonic intervals (patterns vs. clutter); limits of frequency (clarity vs. mud); and limits on pattern recognition (true counterpoint vs. “math music”), etc.

Now we zoom out to view the macro-level structures (harmonic, contrapuntal, textural, etc.) and even fractal geometry is possible (e.g. coastlines viewed from any height look similar).  Large-scale tension and release structures emerge (sonata form, fugue, etc.).  Eventually a battle is waged between “Pure musical” and “Extra-musical” structures (sonata form vs. Wagnerian opera, etc.).

Plato’s allegory of the cave can be understood as the original Matrix concept and it has parallels in both the arts and the sciences.  In the past 100 years, we have begun searching for the next musical leap, but many obsessed with new grains of sand missed the beach taking shape.  To perceive the sand's shifting over time, we must zoom out to understand music as structured energy first and sound or written forms second.  Whether expressed via sound, electricity, on paper, via digits, or light, it exists beyond its aural form… So where does it go from here?