Against cutting identical notes for the present (8)
I believe the answer is:
meantime
'the present' is the definition.
(in the meantime means at present)
'against cutting identical notes' is the wordplay.
'against' becomes 'anti' (I've seen this before).
'cutting' means one lot of letters goes inside another (some letters cut their way into a word).
'identical notes' becomes 'me me' (two instances of the musical note 'me').
'anti' put inside 'meme' is 'MEANTIME'.
'for' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for meantime that I've seen before include "Intervening period" , "interval" , "For the moment" , "interim?" .)