Classical music, which is western ethnic music from one among several periods in the history of music, has had a greater impact than other kinds of music. According to Weber, one reasons for its impact is the rationalization of notation. Why has the West invented rationalized notation?
This study examines Weber's studies of notation to investigate this issue, relating societal time consciousness to rationalizations of notation on the basis of Schutz and Husserl's theories.
According to Schutz, people connect with others through a "mutual tuning-in relationship" that underpins all communication to form not only face-to-face relationships but also quasi-simultaneity that is separated by hundreds of years via music. First, this study analyzes the notation of Japanese traditional music in terms of quasi-simultaneity. Further, it describes the process of development of societal time consciousness in the West—from the Roman to the Gregorian calendar and Greenwich Mean Time—and western music's process for rationalization of notation—from neumatic to modern notations. The study finds a parallel relationship between both processes, which are eventually connected by the invention of the metronome. Maki asserted that activities in modern society must be controlled by "universal time," which in western music means the note that represents abstract time and the beat of modern notation. Husserl philosophically analyzed processes of consciousness in inner time expressed in his time chart. This study also analyzes people's processes of consciousness in a musical environment by collectively using a time chart and notation and identifies the distinctions as well as limitations of universal time. Elias took a contrary position and noted that humankind develops ideas through experience and learning. This study demonstrates that philosophical approaches are effective in sociologically explaining time.
These analyses explain why rationalized notation has been invented in the West. Such notation satisfied the societal demand of connecting people in quasi-simultaneity by abstracting time, as it represents the process of developing societal time consciousness.

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