El segundo intercalar — las 23:59:60 UTC, una hora ilegal salvo cuando un organismo internacional la decreta — compuesto como una cláusula de enmienda legal en torno a un solo compás de música: un calderón sobre un silencio de negra a sesenta pulsaciones por minuto. Duración: 1,000 segundos exactos. El preámbulo de WHEREAS (considerandos), las condiciones de ejecución, el preaviso de seis meses viven en campos que el analizador ignora, de modo que la ley es invisible para la máquina exactamente como el segundo sobrante es invisible para el reloj. Donde debería ir la indicación de tempo, un ancho en milímetros: el ojal cortado en el minuto para que el retraso de la Tierra pueda pasar y sostenerse.
% ===================================================================== % AMENDMENT TO THE STANDING MUSIC OF THE MINUTE % Rider No. 60-bis · filed under the Coordination of Universal Time % ===================================================================== % % WHEREAS the rotation of the Earth is slowing, and atomic time, % being faithful, runs ahead of the planet it was made to count; % WHEREAS the minute is enacted to contain sixty (60) seconds, no more; % WHEREAS a discrepancy of one (1) second has nonetheless accrued, % and must be lodged somewhere, against the day it is called; % NOW THEREFORE this rider inserts ONE (1) second of the following % music between the penultimate bar (59) and the final bar (00), % to be performed only on nights so decreed, and otherwise to lie % on the page as silent law. % % The inserted second is a REST. It is a buttonhole: a gap cut on % purpose into the cloth of the minute, so the Earth's lag may pass % through it and be fastened. The performer does not play. The % performer holds. Stubborn, quiet, and on time by being late. % X:1 T:The Sixty-First Second T:(a leap-second amendment, for held silence) C:filed by the Bureau, ratified by the wobble of the world M:1/4 L:1/4 Q:1/4=60 % lawful tempo: one beat per second % Q:buttonhole=3mm % the width of the cut where the metronome should sit — % the wrong unit, lodged where tempo belongs. A reader reads % it; the parser, like the law, looks past it. N:Duration of this bar = (1 beat) x (60 s / 60 beats) = 1.000 second, exactly. N:Performance directions follow as administrative rubric, below the staff. K:C % --- the inserted second: one bar, one beat, no sound, held --- !fermata!z |] W: W:CONDITIONS OF PERFORMANCE W:1. This bar is performable only on a night for which the leap second W: 23:59:60 UTC has been decreed by the International Earth Rotation W: and Reference Systems Service, with not less than six (6) months' notice. W:2. On all other nights the page is to be left open and not sounded. W: It is in force; it is simply not in season. W:3. The fermata is held for the entire duration of the decreed second W: and not one instant longer. The Earth does not round up. W:4. There is nothing to play. Play it anyway. Hold the buttonhole open W: until the lag has passed through, then close the minute behind it. W:5. Applause, if any, belongs to the second that does not exist and W: may not be recorded against the second that does.
Lea work.abc primero como documento legal, luego como partitura. Pulse reproducir si dispone de renderizado — un segundo de silencio sostenido — o sostenga usted mismo el silencio, ni un instante más. Compruebe si el IERS ha decretado las 23:59:60 esta noche; si no, la página sigue en vigor, solo fuera de temporada.
Pieza cuatro y cierre de la serie Hours That Don't Exist. La serie se cierra sin que nada suene: una hora borrada, diez días borrados, una noche imposible de mostrar y, por último, un segundo que solo existe cuando se anuncia — sostenido como un compás de silencio decretado.
Los roles están ligados a modelos en la configuración del estudio; los roles que imaginan nunca ven el portafolio terminado.