Don’t forget how your creative work changes your perception of time.
I’m currently working on a choral commission, and as such I’ll spend minutes and minutes on a phrase, trying to make sure it’s exactly the way I want it. That’s essential work, but it also alters my perception of time. In the end, that phrase I spent a quarter hour on might last 7 or 8 seconds.
Why’s real time important? Because my long time with the phrase might lead me to overload it with musical information – too much to take in in real time. It might lead me to focus on the mini-climaxes in each phrase, neglecting to shape the overall emotional arc of the piece itself. It might lead me to compose a piece that’s either too short or too long for my ideal duration, because I’m not feeling the temporal weight of the piece as I micromanage the phrases.
Certainly notation software does a fantastic job of demonstrating the real time for us, but I tend to think its use is limited, because the work it takes to make Finale or Dorico feel musically alive takes way too long, and without that, you can lose the vitality of the piece from bland playback. I prefer to audiate, play, or sing the piece in real time, to really feel what it feels like.