I couldn’t believe my eyes when I realized there are just about 65 days left in the summer. Now, retired journalist Robert Krulwich, longtime co-host of NPR’s Radiolab, once wrote up an article called “Not All Seasons Are Created Equal,” which explained that the days of fall added to winter are seven days shorter than the days of spring added to summer.
We get a whole extra week in the warmer months?
Why, then, does it always seem like summers go by too fast?
Our perceptions of time and tempo are affected by many things. Some say age affects our perception of time. Summer plans can make summer feel like it goes by too fast. One weekend is a trip somewhere, the next is a birthday, the next is a work thing. Pretty soon, a whole month is filled.
I asked a flute student once if five minutes was a long time. I had this trick where I told the students to set a timer for five minutes and not stop playing during those five minutes—scales, tunes, whatever, until the timer goes off. This flute student who was about ten years old at the time said, “Well, it’s a long time if you’re, like, in class or something, but it’s not a long time if you’re at the movies.” Intuitive kid.
Tempo is influenced by many things, too. Looking at recordings of The Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss Jr., the run time might give you an idea of how fast or slow the orchestra is playing. I’ll withhold the names of the orchestras and their conductors to protect the innocent, but just a sampling of Blue Danube run times:
11:47
10:38
9:38
8:47
7:58
What’s up with that 7:58, though? Did they cut a section? Skip a repeat? It’s nearly four minutes shorter than the 11:47 recording! Surely, a waltz played too fast or too slow might annoy anyone actually trying to dance to it.
The fun part about music and spending some time at a summer concert or listening to BTPM Classical is that music can help you to experience the present; to slow down time. New experiences, like discovering a new piece, can help our brains, too. Apparently, we register more memories when something is new, which will often make us feel like the music or other new experiences happened over a longer period of time. Music can also put you into a “flow state”—a term coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. It’s when you lose your sense of time, a state of deep absorption and engagement in an activity.
Next time you hear the Blue Danube, close your eyes, imagine the water, or imagine dancers, see their dresses, imagine their feet moving, every detail of the experience. Imagine the musicians and the conductor’s baton. Let’s “flow state” our summer together and slow down the time.
