This essay is an academic consideration and does not advocate any particular view of music.
1. Vanishing Art
Music disappears the moment it is performed.
Art That Exists in Time
Paintings hang on walls, sculptures stand on pedestals. But music occupies no space. It exists only in time, disappearing when the performance ends. Scores are not music but merely blueprints for music.
Singular Experiences
Even if the same performer plays the same piece, no two performances are identical. That moment, that place, that audience — all are unique. The singularity of musical experience mirrors the singularity of existence itself.
What Remains Despite Disappearing
Yet music both "disappears" and "remains." In listeners' memories, in scores, in recordings. Sounds that should have vanished continue to exist in transformed forms. This paradox makes the relationship between music and proof of existence special.
2. Composers' Proof of Existence
Composers leave proof of existence through scores.
Scores as Blueprints
Bach's scores, Beethoven's manuscripts — these are not music itself but blueprints for recreating music. As long as scores survive, that music can be revived endlessly. Composers' intentions transcend time.
Posthumous Performance
Mozart died in 1791. Yet his music is performed worldwide today. Even when a composer's body is gone, music lives on. With each performance, Mozart "exists again."
Interpretation as Dialogue
From the same score, different performers create different interpretations. Furtwängler's Beethoven, Gould's Bach — interpretation is dialogue with the composer. Dead composers and living performers converse through music.
"Scores are letters to dead composers, and performances are their replies."
3. Performers' Proof of Existence
Performers also leave proof of existence through their performances.
Before Recording Technology
Before recording technology, performers' proof of existence was extremely ephemeral. Reviews, letters, audience memories — only indirect traces remained. How magnificent Paganini's playing was, we can only know from documents.
Recording as Revolution
In 1877, Edison invented the phonograph. Technology to physically record and reproduce sound. This fundamentally changed performers' proof of existence. Caruso's voice, Horowitz's piano — recordings perpetuated their proof of existence.
Recordings Are Not Performances
Yet recordings are not live performances. The atmosphere of the venue, the performer's breathing, interaction with the audience — these don't fit in recordings. Recordings are traces of proof of existence, not existence itself.
4. Audience Memory
Music inscribes itself in listeners' memories.
The Bond Between Music and Memory
Hearing a certain song revives specific scenes. First love songs, graduation anthems, music the deceased loved. Music becomes a key to memory, calling forth the past. Audience memory is also a form of proof of existence through music.
The Proust Effect
The "Proust Effect" where eating a madeleine revives the past works powerfully with music too. A song heard 30 years ago vividly revives emotions and memories of that era. Music is a catalyst for proof of existence transcending time.
Shared Memory
Audiences who heard the same music at a concert share that experience. Common memories of "that performance on that night." Music is simultaneously individual proof of existence and collective proof of existence.
Music is where proof of existence intersects among three parties — composer, performer, and audience. Each existence is proven and remembered through music.
5. Ritual and Music
Music accompanies all of life's important moments.
Birth and Death
Lullabies welcome new existence into the world. Funeral marches send departing existence away. From birth to death, music accompanies life's milestones. Music inscribes the beginning and end of existence.
Religious Ceremony
Mass, Buddhist chanting, Gagaku — religious ritual and music are inseparable. Prayers to God, offerings to the dead, community solidarity — music attempts to prove even invisible existence.
National Anthems and Collective Identity
National anthems are proof of a nation's existence. When citizens sing together, collective identity is confirmed. Banning a national anthem is tantamount to denying that nation's existence.
6. Ethnic Music and Cultural Proof of Existence
Ethnic music is proof of cultural existence.
Oral Tradition
Much ethnic music has no scores. Passed from parent to child, master to apprentice, through oral tradition. If the people cease, the music ceases. Ethnic music itself is proof of existence as a chain of people.
Colonial Rule and Music
Colonial rulers often banned local music. By taking away language and music, they tried to deny colonized peoples' identity. Preserving music is resistance of existence.
Intangible Cultural Heritage
UNESCO registers intangible cultural heritage including music. Georgian polyphonic singing, Indonesian gamelan — such registration internationally proves that culture's existence.
7. Popular Music and Personal History
Popular music binds to individual lives.
Records of an Era
The Beatles' 60s, punk's 70s, hip-hop's 80s — popular music records eras. For those who lived through those times, music becomes their proof of existence.
Personal Soundtracks
Lives have personal soundtracks. First purchased CDs, songs heard on dates, songs repeated on heartbreak nights. These songs become proof of existence of personal history.
Identification with Artists
Fans project themselves onto artists. "Their songs speak my feelings" — the artist's proof of existence becomes the fan's own proof of existence. Sharing proof of existence through music.
Music is like a bookmark for life. Hearing a song, you find yourself from that era there.
8. Evolution of Recording Technology and Proof of Existence
Recording technology has changed the relationship between music and proof of existence.
From Analog to Digital
Records, cassettes, CDs, streaming — recording media have transitioned. Each medium has a lifespan, and formats become obsolete. Without a record player, records cannot be played.
Digital Fragility
Digital sources don't degrade but can disappear. Hard drive failures, cloud service terminations, file format obsolescence. Digital-age music is not as permanent as it appears.
Disappearing Recordings
Precious early 20th-century recordings are being lost to degradation. Wax cylinders, early tapes — physical media decay. Recorded proof of existence also disappears without preservation efforts.
9. The Future of Music and Proof of Existence
How will the relationship between music and proof of existence change?
AI and Composition
An era when AI composes. Whose proof of existence is it? The prompt author, the AI itself, or the countless composers whose work became training data? The subject of creation is being destabilized.
Virtual Artists
Hatsune Miku, Virtual YouTubers — artists without physical bodies. What is their proof of existence? Fans' attachment, creators' work, corporate investment — complex composite proof of existence.
Immortal Voices
Technology to recreate deceased voices with AI. Dead singers singing new songs. Is this extension of proof of existence or desecration of existence? Ethical boundaries between music and proof of existence are being questioned.
Technology extends the relationship between music and proof of existence. But the question of "whose proof of existence" becomes ever more complex.
10. TokiStorage and Music
How to perpetuate music, this vanishing art?
Preserving Scores
Engraving scores in quartz glass can preserve composers' blueprints for 1,000 years. Paper scores burn, digital files disappear, but quartz glass remains.
Perpetuating Recording Data
Engraving audio waveforms as data in quartz glass. Protecting performers' proof of existence from media degradation. People 1,000 years from now can hear today's performances.
Stories of Music
Not just music itself but stories surrounding it — composition background, performance memories, audience recollections — these too can be engraved in quartz glass. Preserving proof of existence along with its context around music.
Conclusion — What Remains by Vanishing
Music is vanishing art. Yet perhaps that very "vanishing" is music's essence.
Because it vanishes the moment it's performed, that moment is precious. Because it's a singular experience, it inscribes deeply in memory. Music "remains" by "vanishing" — a paradoxical form of proof of existence.
Scores as composers' blueprints, recordings as performers' traces, memory as audience experience — music leaves multilayered proof of existence. Within a single piece, countless people's existences intersect.
Technology has enabled music preservation. But technology too transitions. From records to CDs, CDs to streaming — media change, old formats become unplayable. Digital data is not eternal either.
TokiStorage is an attempt to preserve music's proof of existence on a 1,000-year scale. Engraving scores, recording data, stories about music in quartz glass. Even as technology changes, even as media decay, proof of existence remains.
Music vanishes. Yet sounds that should have vanished continue to resonate somewhere. In our memories, in quartz glass, across time.
References
- Sacks, O. (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain. Knopf.
- Small, C. (1998). Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening. Wesleyan University Press.
- Katz, M. (2004). Capturing Sound: How Technology Has Changed Music. University of California Press.
- Okada, A. (2005). History of Western Music. Chuokoron-Shinsha. [Japanese]
- Koizumi, F. (1994). What Lies at the Root of Music. Heibonsha. [Japanese]
- Masuda, S. (2006). Creating Audiences: Deconstructive Grammar of Music Criticism. Seidosha. [Japanese]