Time point
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In music a time point or timepoint (point in time) is "an instant, analogous to a geometrical point in space".[1] Because it has no duration, it literally cannot be heard,[2] but it may be used to represent "the point of initiation of a single pitch, the repetition of a pitch, or a pitch simultaneity",[3] therefore the beginning of a sound, rather than its duration. It may also designate the release of a note or the point within a note at which something changes (such as dynamic level).[4] Other terms often used in music theory and analysis are attack point[5] and starting point.[6] Milton Babbitt calls the distance from one time point, attack, or starting point to the next a time-point interval,[7] independent of the durations of the sounding notes which may be either shorter than the time-point interval (resulting in a silence before the next time point), or longer (resulting in overlapping notes). Charles Wuorinen shortens this expression to just time interval.[8] Other writers use the terms attack interval,[5] or (translating the German Einsatzabstand), interval of entry,[9] interval of entrance,[10] or starting interval.[11]