I’ve read that Leroy Anderson came up with the name for his timeless novelty piece “Syncopated Clock” before he composed the music.
While an orchestra plays a jaunty tune, the regular tick-tock rhythm is established by temple blocks.
This goes on for a few measures, but then, suddenly, the melody springs forward, skipping a downbeat.
Even when you expect it, that eighth-note rest is jarring, sort of like daylight saving time.
We will all “spring forward” this weekend, but even so, when we are accustomed to 24-hour days progressing like clockwork, skipping even an hour is jarring.
According to the International Dark Sky Association, “for billions of years, all life has relied on the predictable rhythm of day and night. It’s encoded in the DNA of all plants and animals which depend on this daily cycle of light and dark to govern life-sustaining behaviors such as reproduction, nourishment and rest.”
Plants and animals will continue to follow their innate circadian rhythms based on photoperiod, whether or not we save daylight.
But we humans, now affected by artificial night light and erratic schedules, still a seem to require a 24-hour schedule.
Last summer, I attended a conference called “Drones in Space."
The speaker was one of the engineers who controls the Mars helicopter.
The team at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory had the engineering nailed.
But Mars has a 24-hour, 37-minute and 22-second day.
Working on a Mars day schedule was like springing forward 40 minutes each day - day after day after day.
Imagine what that did to the circadian rhythms of the Earthlings.
Perhaps if we humans would stop meddling with clocks and lighting up the night sky and become more attuned to the natural rhythms of life in our regular 24-hour day, we might be much better off.
