  Adopting a performer-centric perspective, we frequently encounter two
statements: "music flows", and "music is life-like". This dissertation builds
on top of the two statements above, resulting in an exploration of the role of
temporal asymmetry in music (generalizing "music flows") and its relation to
the idea of organicism (generalizing "music is life-like"). We focus on two
aspects of temporal asymmetry. The first aspect concerns the vastly different
epistemic mechanisms with which we obtain knowledge of the past and the future.
A particular musical consequence follows: recurrence. The epistemic difference
between the past and the future shapes our experience and interpretation of
recurring events in music. The second aspect concerns the arrow of time: the
unambiguous ordering imposed on temporal events gives rise to the a priori
pointedness of time, rendering time asymmetrical and irreversible. A discussion
on thermodynamics informs us musically: the arrow of time effectuates itself in
musical forms by delaying the placement of the climax.
  Organicism serves as a mediating topic, engaging with the concept of life as
in organisms. On the one hand, organicism is related to temporal asymmetry in
science via a thermodynamical interpretation of life as entropy-reducing
entities. On the other hand, organicism is a topic native to music via the
universally acknowledged artistic idea that music should be interpreted as a
vital force possessing volitional power. With organicism as a mediator, we
better understand the role of temporal asymmetry in music. In particular, we
view musical form as a process of expansion and elaboration analogous to
organic growth. Finally, we present an organicist interpretation of delaying
the climax: viewing musical form as the result of organic growth, the arrow of
time translates to a preference for prepending structure over appending
structure.
