Chronophany

English

From Greek χρόνος (chronos, "time") + -φάνεια (-phaneia, "appearance, manifestation"), modeled after words such as theophany and epiphany.

A manifestation, revelation, or perceptible appearance of time itself; a moment in which the passage, weight, depth, or structure of time becomes unusually tangible to human awareness.
(Literary & Musical Theory) A moment within a work of art, particularly music or poetry, where the underlying movement, pulse, or passage of time is brought directly into the audience's consciousness[cite: 31, 32].
A structural discontinuity or "disorienting gap" in a composition that exposes the pure temporal flow of the work, forcing the audience to confront the presence of time itself[cite: 66, 86].
(Psychological Context) An artistic mechanism where a disruption in the flow of a work serves to reflect the continuous inner identity, or ego, of its creator[cite: 33, 34].

Watching the abandoned amusement park decay over decades produced a strange chronophany, as if the years themselves had become visible.
The reunion acted as a chronophany; everyone suddenly saw the distance between their memories and the present.
Ancient ruins often evoke a sense of chronophany, revealing layers of time normally hidden from view.
In music, the shocking silence of the piano during the recitative in "Erlkönig" acts as a striking closural chronophany[cite: 71].
The sudden breakdown of structural rhythm in the poem created a chronophany, thrusting the raw feeling of time passing into the foreground[cite: 28, 32].

Kramer, Lawrence. Music and poetry, the nineteenth century and after. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984. pp. 226-228. ISBN 0520048733.