Architecture and Music

Stiliyana Ilieva Minkovska09011401

U30025 Issues in Architectural History and Theory

Essay

Architecture and Music

Figure 1: Venice in reflections

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Question N3Architecture has been influenced by alternate disciplines such as film, art, engineering etc.Sometimes this influence, on the surface, seems simplistic. Taking one example from an alternate discipline explore the possible connections of the work to architectural practice and architectural design. This essay should go beyond the obvious and will require that the author has a good knowledge of the theoretical position of the alternate discipline.


Figure 2: Defining sound wave materialisation

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INTRODUCTION

‘Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building ofthe church and all its decoration; it is the Church’s greatest ornament.’ Igor Stravinsky


Figure 3: Physical transformation of a sound wave

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Since the Middle Ages, architecture and music have cooperated with each other. They have gone through all their metamorphosis together, hand in hand. Each individual epoch is marked by a partic-ular style of perception and expression. They have gone a long way together, being refused, abused, misunderstood or just accepted the way they are. They both have been influenced and defeated by the same motives. They both have survived and revolutionised definite faith and arrogance. They both have been through honour, stagnancy and constancy. They both have been united and destroyed by the same disturbance.

The following text introduces you an art, translat-ed, transformed and accepted as another art - arts which are able to interpret one another.Visiting an old historical building with its entire majesty, people always could recognise its period of design. Either an ornament or just an elevation would hint its originality in terms of time, space and influence. The building speaks of itself. It car-ries its aeon, its language.

The building contains voices, sounds, hums, noises and so on. The building talks about inspira-tion, taste, comfort, interest, values and dreams. A building could be translated as an experience. A human being experiences a building and the build-ing does so. It is a return journey. A building car-ries much more experience than a normal life of a person could. A building is being constructed, then bombed, then renovated and then deconstructed again – it is a journey which many designs go through, especially in times of change.

It transmits time and space; it creates feelings and requires emotions. A building could be accepted as a human being as it is designed perfectly by one, to serve and comfort. People should have heavy sense of responsibility by knowing what the building stands for and what it tells.

Apart from what buildings carry in a psychological implication, they also are melodious in terms of their division. If they are in peace with one an-other, then the melody is in synchrony, otherwise it creates chaos. A building, in terms of its plan and circulation, should be well-acoustical. It should provide the needed sound, its specific volume, fre-quency, speed and an adequate audible solution which could afford all. A building which has a high level of acoustic becomes more momentous than a building which is a beautiful design but vacant of light and sound. The acoustic of a building is its voice; you let it be free as long as you give it the ability to talk. The building becomes not only the main temperament but the action of the narrative.

The technology is a noteworthy part of the building process, especially, if it is attending to music and its presence. The technology plays a massive role in articulating the specific kind of acoustic for a particular space. It needs to be resonance-protect-ed, sound insulated; the vibrations should travel peacefully without any interference. Acoustic of a building should be prepared from the very begin-ning of the design construction, from the beams to the finishes. Also, the materiality is exceedingly important as some materials would allow but oth-ers would stop the sound spread.


Figure 4: Shape, space, light definition

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For example concrete would necessitate a heavy structure but the sound would reverberate. On the other hand, a light structure like slats, would grate an acoustic diffraction. This kind of structure is not suggested as it would provoke ‘odd tonal distor-tion’. (Beranek, 1962)

The division of the spaces plays just a vital role and the building material and construction. Also, not only the building material and its con-struction is vital, but the division of the spaces. They should be separated in a clever and con-siderate way by providing enough space for the music to breath, spread and reach human(’s) mind. The plan is the most important part of the design process as it shows motion, movement and circulation through a space. It is the drawing which best describes how the building collaborates with human beings and how they discover and explore the space. The plan is the accurate horizontal way of describing movement through space.

Concert halls, theatres, cinemas, music arenas (and the rest ) are some of the most specific projects in terms of music. They oblige require extremely high levels of acoustic quality, clar-ity of tone, pitch and volume as well as sufficient amounts of air space to allow the sound to travel. These kinds of public spaces should allow music lovers to both hear and see the spectacle. For instance, the Greek amphitheatre is a master-piece for its time; it was seen as simple perfection. Nowadays, it has so many disadvantages. One of them is that it is an open space which spreads the sound and the acoustic is lost. Orchestras cannot be satisfied performing at amphitheatre because

it is not enclosed and it affects the repertoire, the melody and the concentration. melody and the concentration.

repertoire, the melody and the concentration.On the other hand, an example of a great con-cert hall achievement is the Royal Albert Hall in London which contains 3,000,000 cubic feet volume. It gives good acoustics but nevertheless it takes time for the sound to travel through the massive volume. It proves the fact that not always the bigger is the successful. To provide a hall as large and with excellent acoustic is definitely not an easy job which requires time to discover the ‘Golden Section’. (Kanach, 2008)

“Sound is created by materials that vibrate. The vibrating surfaces of strings or membranes set into motion the molecules of the air surrounding them. Not content with vibrating alone, these moving air molecules jostle their neighbours and produce an outward-travelling wave which progresses at a speed of 1130 feet per second” 1

Well, the vibrations are the ones which give sense of tone. People can not only feel them but they can also respond to them. All live organisms are able to percept and radiate vibrations. They are related in an endless cycle of rhythm, base and volume. This is where the definition of material takes place and it is the most essential connec-tion between the sound reproduction and humans’ perception. The material, together with the shape of the building, is the key to a good acoustic.


Figure 5: Jewish Museum - Berlin, Germany

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“Goethe said, “Architecture is frozen music”. From composer’s point of view, we may reverse the proposition by saying “music is architecture in movement”. On the theoretical level, both state-ments may be beautiful and accurate, but they enter into the intimate structures of two arts.”2

Listening to Iannis Xenakis’s work called Poeme Electronique which is presented at Philips pavilion in Brussels Universal exposition in 1958, provokes deep thoughtful concentration. The idea of what he achieves for that time is absolutely significant. He creates ‘an organic synthesis of all arts’ (Sha-ron Kanach, 2008). The Philips pavilion is a great example of what a great collaboration music and architecture could be, and how two such unique fields could become an amazing collaborative part-nership. When the brief is interactive, the piece of work should follow the same pattern. In this case, the sound inside the building should match its ma-terialisation. Through hyperbolic parabola shape of the Philips pavilion, Xenakis represents his initial idea of Metastaseis – the eight minutes electronic music piece of work which creates minimalistic environment through its noise. The work feels like a rain of glass falling down softly.

The Philips pavilion is a major work, both in audi-ent and visual way. It celebrates an incredible event of both spatial and musical creations. The Poeme Electronique is a poetic tool which helps for the design translation. It integrates all needed components for a great element of work – light, colour, images, rhythm, sound and architecture. It is a phenomena work for the time it is introduced. Such a masterwork designed by Le Corbusier in

collaboration with Iannis Xenakis – both geniuses in their own rights.

Music and architecture could rouse the same emo-tions – happiness, sadness, tragedy or romanti-cism, aggression or riot, comfort and discomfort. The music is able to make an architectural work stronger as well as the architecture could help reinforcing musical piece of work. For example, a three dimensional visualisation becomes much stronger and powerful if music is applied to it. The music dictates the timbre and the growth of the emotion. When the peak comes, the music could easily reflect and represent it in a way which would make it more distinctive and atmospheric. Also, ar-chitecture serves music too. It gives spatial mean-ing of what is heard. There are millions of visuali-sations based on musical work. It is either sound effect translated into a space, or just a noise which illustrates a landscape.

For example, there are spaces and noises which provoke dissimilar sentiments but in a comparable translation. If a space is well-designed, it easily could make you feel neglected or entirely secure. If a space is designed on sexual purpose, it could achieve that not only through its materiality but through particular type of music as well. It all depends on the matter in which the architects wish to accomplish. Theirs is the choice to play with expressions and intentions. Music and architecture are just simply implausible tools for translation. In fact, probably the greatest architectural piece, influenced by music and built on musical purpose, is the Sydney Opera House. This masterpiece clarifies how incredible the two arts could


Figure 6: Interior spaces articulation

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contribute, unite and translate each other. The architect’s name is Jorn Utzon, who gets ar-chitecture’s ‘Nobel prize’ for his work. (Murray, 2004). This masterwork totally explains the unique connection between music and architecture. The same as each innovative art, this building is criticised, hated, adored, valued and underrated. It takes unbelievable amount of time, energy, ef-fort and pressure to reach the aim of a beautiful shape, combined with extraordinary acoustic. The aim to provide a cosy place, saturated with light, air, acoustic, correct proportion and materials, is definitely succeeded in the Sydney Opera House.

Music is architecture and vice versa. It is a return journey without beginning and ending. It is an in-finite cycle of emotional signals bringing you back and forward. There are hundreds of examples which could translate one another. For instance, visiting Daniel Liebeskind’s Jewish Museum in Berlin, a person could experience the holocaust. The person could experience the musicality of the murder through sound effects which are repre-sented giving you an idea of how people were ruthlessly killed. The music of holocaust sounds brutal and this space can perfectly demonstrate it. The experience is unique. It gives you opportu-nity to enter an empty space covered with metal sculptures of heads. People are allowed to go over the heads which make the horrific sound which goes straight to your bones. People could experi-ence the massacre hundred years ago through a sound and space. The concrete walls are the collaboration of the sound as they even give colder and more dramatic atmosphere. The noise is so interruptive, so strong and so cruel. If peo-ple are braveenough to go over the metal heads, they could realise how just a sound underneath someone’s feet talks much more than the great-est visualisation. It is a frustrating and unusual emotion. People stay frozen for a while in this part of the museum. It is just memorable moment of its exploration. It takes energy and strength as it requires very strong psychic to stand the atmos-phere of holocaust music.

Music can represent different spaces when the human brain has experienced them before. ‘The wall’ by Pink Floyd is a projected example of how architecture and music can be associates. Their collaboration is exclusively intensive and mean-ingful. This is more than collaboration; it is pure diagram, defining a time when both architecture and music are damaged by consequences. This movie is a great graphic representation of music. The story is tragic and extremely influential. Pink closes himself in a room trying to escape what the world serves him. The movie shows the provoca-tion of the creation of ‘The wall’. The main charac-ter creates a wall between him and the surround-ing world. It is insulation, represented through music and architecture. In this case the music symbolises the world and on the other hand archi-tecture – the escape of this world. Shivers come to one’s body if they understand the meaning of the film-take this out or explain how and why. The particular time provokes particular type of music – rock music, revolutionary music as a powerful weapon against ‘The wall’. ‘Empty spaces’ is the part which best describes how architecture could be made out of music. In this part the music is just an unstoppable force which draws continuously endless figures which are presented as spatial variations of architectural forms. The whole movie is a piece of musical, graphical, psychological and last but not least architectural skills. Architec-ture is a main presence in the movie. The space incites music and the music translates the space. It reaches meaning which is beyond the limited human mind for this time. Architecture is weapon of time, people use it to build or destroy particular spaces for one’s benefits. It’s a tool used both on positive and negative purpose.


Figure 7: Achievement

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THE PROJECT


Figure 8: Physical translation of music work

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Second year as an architecture student is when it is learnt more about the transformation of an idea into materiality. The time where it is required to explore an interest and materialise it into a shape. Venice is the place where a brief called ‘Celebrato-ry spaces’ is given. A site of interest has to chosen based on a certain subject and this subject has to be praised, celebrated. In this case, the music is the specific subject which is studied, understood and practised.

San Michele isola is the cemetery of Venice. It is one of the most peaceful and harmonious places one could ever visit. It is surrounded by the Mediterranean from four sides and it is covered by natural flora and beautiful concrete urns. The most famous grave there is the one of Igor Stravinsky who is a Russian composer, very influential for 20th century. His grave is just an ordinary grave-stone and it represents neither his personality, nor his music. The brief is made clear. Igor Stravinsky is the chosen character and his music is the main celebration.

The chosen work of research is ‘Rite of Spring’. This special composition provokes interest and cu-riosity because of its perception in the time when it is presented. Nowadays this is a masterwork but its first production creates a revolt as people are not used this kind of dramatic nature of a sound. Listening to the music, gives completely different image of what ritual is and how it is represented.

‘Rite of spring’ is the opposition of the normal per-ception of ritual and spring. The meaning of ritual is presented in the work but with different affection. It is extolled but in a daemonic way, it carries

darkness and dramatisation. The work expresses Stravinsky’s emotions, feelings and state of mind while he is composing the creation. ‘Rite of spring’ gives sense of muse and inspiration which Stravin-sky experiences writing the work but definitely accepted in an unusual method.

Having the idea that the work is made for a ballet, it is even easier to imagine how specific the crea-tion of it is. When it is being composed, the author needs to put themselves into the particular space and imagine motion, circulation, spatial proportion and materiality. It tests capability of the human imagination to transfer music into architectural space. That inflames the interest and the passion of designing a challenging project.

As long as the brief of the project is clear and the narrative is notated, the design development has to be started. There is software called Cubase which allows accurate sound waves captures. It is used to help defining particular sound waves in terms of their volume and frequency. ‘Rite of spring’ is a spectacular piece of work which is based mainly on descending and climax. The vivid tones are so changeable and dramatic just like human emotions – body architecture expressed through music.

The music has to be translated into a physical form. The initial step is reading Stravinsky’s music and considerate it in architectural shape. The most remarkable sound waves are picked and notated. The design has to be as energetic and powerful as his work. The shape is defined and the name is announced – Music chapel – the place where one could go and experience music in a materialised


Figure 9: Revised physical translation - section

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approach through shape, spatial meaning and emotional translation. Picking all the striking sound waves, the shape of the building is defined – physical translation of Stravinsky’s music. The idea of the design is to be an experienced journey through his work and ac-cepting the meaning of frozen music.

Frozen music is the melody of ‘Rite of Spring’ transferred into a real building form. Collecting the useful data, from Stravinsky’s notes to his eventual realisation, gives the confidence of the design con-cept. It is meant to be a journey from the introduc-tion of the work to its peak and then descending again. The building is a reflection of piece of work which translates Stravinsky’s emotions and gives better understanding of his influences.

The design expresses music. Music as a melody, music as architecture, music as a story, emo-tions, feelings, obsessions, ups and downs and last but not least music as vital process of living. Music becomes extensive architectural shape, a playground for creation. The broken romanticism, which Igor Stravinsky brings into the Classical music, is applied successfully onto the interior of the space. The feelings which the interior spaces express are more than dramatic, exactly what ‘Rite of Spring’ for the ballet is. The building itself is a journey where one enters a space and chooses the route themselves but the building leads them. The building represents the feelings which Stravin-sky’s melody provokes. Whatever he expresses in ‘Rite of Spring, is tried to reflect it in the design.

All the dramatic tones, illustrated up and down, ex-ist in both design’s interior and exterior. The most important task is to try to avoid the symmetry as the tones are extremely different from one another. They are absolutely individual and powerful as ones. The right angles and the plane surfaces are avoided as they would break the harmony and the synchronisation of the building.

Music chapel is a project where human imagi-nation goes beyond the visible and breaks the clichés in both architecture and music. This time the architecture becomes music without implied sound. The illustration of music is the shape of a building which gives universal definition of music in a stoned form. The rhythm is the light; the base is the concrete and the tone is the human being. They navigate the motion and the frequency of the sound.

(Material x Sound)/Time = (Material x Light)/(Space ) [3] (Elizabeth Martin, 1994)

This revised study by Steven Holl is extremely useful for defining materiality and light to the design. The first part of the equation is defined and the second part requires understanding and practice of the first one and then translation to the spatial one. However, the chosen material is con-crete as concrete is the best material for express-ing strong dramatic emotions. Having thousands of examples of concrete influence – Daniel Liebes-kind’s Jewish museum interior, Peter Eisenmann’s Jewish memorial, David Chipperfield’s extension to San Michele – all these precedent studies give confidence in the chosen material. Concrete is the perfect translation of a powerful expression.


Figure 10: Me experiencing the space

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On the other hand, the shape has its accent which is stained glass cuts which flow along the build-ing surface. These cuts allow the light to come through and play a shading game through prism as the stained glass is in the shape of prism. Also, the stained glass is a famous Venetian production which makes the project relevant not only to music but to Venice as well. The light is the element of sound transferred into the shape.

The project is a sequence of many studies based on music, architecture, translation of one another and their collaboration. The project gives under-standing of architecture through music and vice versa. It is an infinite cycle with beginning which is an idea, but with no end, which is human’s imagi-nation.

The cycle is simple – composer – music – notes – sound wave frequency and volume – translation into architecture – musicality – but there is much deeper understanding applied to this design, the understanding of a music work in architectural ap-proach.


Figure 11: Musicality in San Michele

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Architecture could reach human’s interest by any kind of art, even a ‘simple’ one as music. Music, which is able to define space, landscape, even time, only if you let it do so. Architecture could be translated through whatever human’s imagination could aim to reach. Art, engineering, music, film, psychologically or physically, architecture finds the right way to design itself. If only you wish to see or get to know it, it stands right in front of you. From the latest designer shoes to the most virgin beach where only the breeze is the music in your heart, the same way architecture provokes or requires different areas of subjects to be translated; it is being translated through them. ‘The wall’- is it just a song, or a state of mind, or an architectural masterpiece, or fear, maybe a barrier or claustro-phobia? You give the freedom of imagination and it lets build itself. Music constructs architecture and architecture embodies music.

If I could translate architecture through myself, I would never stop dancing in synchrony with the landscape. I would illustrate motion through body language and I would formulate own rhythm which would express my music.


INDEX

1 Beranek, Leo L. (1962). Music, acoustics and architecture. New York London: John Wiley and sons, inc.. p13.

2 Kanach, Sharon (2008). Music and architecture by Iannis Xenakis. New York: Pendragon Press. p46

3Martin, Elizabeth (1994). Architecture as a translation of music. New York: Princeton Architectural press. p56.

BOOK REFERENCE

Beranek, Leo L. (1962). Music, acoustics and architecture. New York London: John Wiley and sons, inc. p1-11, p31-60, p393-433.

Bright, Michael (1984). Cities built to music. Ohio : Ohio State university press: Columbus. p71-89.

Gerace, Gloria (2003). Syphony:Frank Ghery’s walt disney concert hall. Canada: Blanchette Press. p115-144.

Kanach, Sharon (2008). Music and architecture by Iannis Xenakis. New York: Pendragon Press. p3-158.

LaBelle, Brandon (2006). Background noise perspectives on sound art. New York: The Continuum International Pub-lishing Group Inc. p47-85, p108-120, p167-192, p295-298.

Littlefield, David and Lewis, Sasika (2007). Architectural voices. Great Britain: Wiley-academy. p17-47, p86-97, p120-123.

Martin, Elizabeth (1994). Architecture as a translation of music. New York: Princeton Architectural press. p8-35, p41-53, p56-59, p64-67.

Murray, Peter (2004). The saga of Sydney Opera House . London, New York: Spon Press. p1-22, p92-114.

Sacks, Oliver (1989). Seeing Voices. London: Pan Books Ltd. p84-100.

MUSIC SCORES

Hinant, Guy Mark. (2001). An anthology of noise and electronic music/first a-chronology 1921-2001. Brussels: SUB ROSA

IMAGES

All the images, provided for this work, are personal archive from design development of ‘Music chapel’.

WEBSITES

Floyd, Pink. (2006). Pink Floyd - Another Brick in the Wall. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_bvT-DGcWw. Last accessed 10th May 2011.

Floyd, Pink. (2006). Pink Floyd The Wall - Is There Anybody Out There?. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pr-JoqFVC5E. Last accessed 10th May 2011.

Xenakis, Iannis. (2006). Iannis Xenakis - Metastasis. Available: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZazYFchLRI. Last accessed 10th May 2011.

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Architecture and Music

Documents