GOH CHEE HOU 10046455QUESTION NO.3

MUSIC - A FRIEND OF ARCHITECTUREU30025: ISSUES IN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY AND THEORY

2012

Question 3. Architecture 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 the author has good knowledge of the theoretical position of the alternate discipline.

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Goethe, Friedrich Schlegel, and Schelling cited in (Scher, 1992, p.95) suggested that ‘music as “liquid” architecture and of architecture, conversely, as “frozen music.”’. What can that quote possibly mean? Why is music liquid architecture, and at the same time why is architecture frozen music? Could it not be painting or sculpture instead of architecture? And why were the adjectives “liquid” and “frozen” used to describe music and architecture respectively? “Liquid architecture”, does that mean architecture that can move freely? If it is true, then frozen music could possibly mean static music. Music is therefore architecture that can move freely, while architecture is static music, but why is this true? Instead of “why”, “how” could perhaps be a more appropriate question, because an exact and correct answer or solution does not exist in the field of architecture. Furthermore, music is so abstract that the same piece of music is able to create different feelings in different audiences. One of the reasons for these differences in interpretation and emotions is because to the complexity of our brains, which give us the ability to process information in a huge number of unique ways. Due to this, there are many solutions to any particular problem, and these solutions would be based on ones’ creativity. When this logic is applied in the interpretation of the quote by Goethe, Friedrich Schlegel, and Schelling, there are thousands of possibilities. However, from how the quote is understood, a topic is raised to argue that, music is actually a good “friend” of architecture. And the “how” is the evidence that will be shown to prove this argument.

Music - A Friend of Architecture

Figure 2. Figure 3.“Pieta” of 1850 by Eugene Delacroix “Pieta” of 1889 by Van Gogh

Music and architecture are two different art forms, but how did they come together? There is always a relationship between two things, even though they are unrelated. None of us is able to foresee the future; none of us is allowed to decide whether two things have any relationship or not. Evolutions make everything uncertain and unpredictable, but there is one thing that keeps them the same- their soul. For an example, no matter what the size or colour of an apple and how it may change due to different planting methods or conditions, an apple is still an apple. As Aristotle stated, “Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies” (Descharmes, et al., 2011, p.138), this helps to explain why music and architecture are able to become “friends” even though they are two different “bodies”. The soul here means art, they are therefore under the same category, but they are of two different fields- the bodies. However, this is still not enough to support the argument as painting and sculpture are both art as well, therefore we must ask why architecture?, and why music? Unlike painting or sculpture, architecture is not an imitative art, because as Reynolds says “it applies itself, like Musick (and I believe

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we may add Poetry), directly to the imagination, without the intervention of any kind of imitation” (Bright, 1942, p.82) Imagination without imitation helps to distinguish music and architecture from other types of art, such as painting and sculpture. Each and every piece of music or architecture is meant to be different to each other, as they are meant to create different feelings and spur the imagination of audiences or users. Undoubtedly, painting and sculpture do need imagination too, but at the same time two similar paintings or sculptures could be produced and interpreted differently by two different artists. There are two very good examples of this; one of these was the painting “Pieta” of 1889 by Van Gogh which was greatly inspired by Eugene Delacroix’s “Pieta” of 1850. The other example is the paintings; both called “La Grenouillere” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Monet, where the artists painted them together at the same time.

Painting and sculpture are very personal arts and show the artists or individuals expressing their emotions or thoughts in an abstract way, to deliver a certain message to those that view their works. By contrast, music and architecture are created for the needs of an audience or user. The musician and architect are both playing an important role in capturing four of the five senses of human beings i.e. sight, smell, touch and hearing with their creations. It is the response of an audience or a user, from their experience through a piece of music or architecture itself that helps to bring both music and architecture to life; without them, music and architecture would be soulless. As an example, we can look at the Generalstabs in the city of Belgrade, Serbia, after the NATO Bombing the bombed out building had transformed into a memory of war, replacing its function as the Ministry of Defence for Serbia. It was left unchanged for 12 years after the bombing, without any attendance of people; it is now merely a useless block in the middle of the city, a dead building. By looking at the points that have been mentioned, it is reasonable to say that music and architecture share some similar characteristics and principles; this is part of the reasons why they are so strongly interrelated, as two different types of art while not the others.

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Figure 4.Amphion charmed the stones with his lyre.

There is a Greek mythological tradition about this, “With the enchanting strains of his lyre, Amphion miraculously charmed stones to take their places in the walls of Thebes, and Apollo built the walls of Troy with music in much the same way.”(Bright, 1942, p.82) The myth of Amphion is about him and his brother Zethus, after killing Lycus, they proceeded to strengthen the city of Thebes. Zethus carried the stones while Amphion produced enchanting music with his lyre, causing the stones to move of their own will to fill the top of the walls. Although this is just a myth, every existence must have its own reason; and even though it is not real, there must be something that we can learn from it. One thing that this myth makes clear is that music is, or could be, very powerful because of its beauty and that it might even be able to calm the soul of architecture.

Mythology provides confidence while history provides evidence. It is understandable that the mythology and the previous statements are just the paths to allow a connection between music and architecture. The connection does not fully prove the “friendship” between music and architecture. However, a connection is the beginning of a relationship; without it, friendship will never come. With this connection, evidence is needed to strengthen the point that music is a “friend” of architecture. Why is music known as a “friend” of architecture? What are the roles of being a “friend”?

Figure 5.Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus, Athens.

Figure 6.Walt Disney Concert hall, Downtown Los Angeles, California.

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‘Saint Thomas Aquinas said “Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.”’ (Ladd and Kelly, 2004) Without friends, there is nothing to lose, but one’s life would be meaningless. It would be the same when this situation is applied to music and architecture; an architecture that lacks the quality of music would be totally dull and lifeless. When looking at architecture that tightly embraces music, there is no better example than a theatre or concert hall. From the Theatre of Dionysus, which is believed to be the first theatre to have been constructed in the world, in Greece around 500 BC to the Walt Disney Concert Hall which was designed by architect Frank Owen Gehry in the year of 2003 all were built to provide a stage for musician to bring their music to life, this music in turn gives life to the building. Would a concert hall exist without music and musicians? The answer could be a yes or no, because there are two obvious possibilities which may change the answer. Firstly, when there is no music, there is no necessity to build a concert hall; a secured decision. Secondly, although there is no music, a concert hall may be built to attract musicians from around the world; an investment. There is no difference between comparing these two situations to the process of making friends. One can either choose to go away or stay, but the final result will still be the same; make a friend. A concert hall as a body without a soul would need music to fill its emptiness, while music is being “adopted”; helping each other. That is what friends do.

Figure 7.Celebration by taking photo together with the model of competition-winning design.From left: Frank Gehry, Diane Disney Miller, Fred Nicholas, and Ernest Fleischmann, 1988.

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A specific building, Walt Disney Concert Hall will be used as an example to represent architecture so that a deeper understanding of the relationship between music and architecture can be explored. The Walt Disney Concert Hall which is located in Downtown Los Angeles, California, is the fourth hall of the Los Angeles Music Centre serving as the home of the well-known orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. In 1987, due to the need for a new concert hall for Walt Disney, a competition was organized. Following a careful process of selection, among the 80 architects from around the world who had taken part in the competition, Frank Gehry was eventually announced as the winner. In their essay on the making of Walt Disney Concert Hall, Koshalek and Hutt (2003) mentioned, “With its generosity of openness and space and a lush garden, Gehry’s scheme evidenced a full understanding of what a building in Los Angeles should be.” Gehry (2003) said, “In my work I have always used art and music as kind of inspirational motor. When I get stuck, I go look at paintings or listen to music. I find music in particular reassuring, and in many ways it just gets me going. It’s energizing. And so the connection between architecture and music has always seemed natural to me.” Unlike Daniel Libeskind, Frank Gehry was not a musician before becoming an architect. However, the influence of music on him since he was a child was not much less than Libeskind’s due to the interests of his mother who used to take him to concerts; awakening in him a strong interest in classical music. An architect creates architecture; the influence of music on an architect would therefore indirectly become an influence on architecture. Due to this reason, the influences of music on architecture are imposed by the architect himself. Based on the above statement, there is no doubt that the influence of music on the design of Walt Disney Concert Hall was begun by Frank Gehry himself.

A passionate architect who is always curious about everything like Frank Gehry himself makes him a good listener to an expert in any field. Together with his background as a classical music lover, his passionate attitude led him to become good friends with Esa-Pekka Salonen, the music director of Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at that time; even though they were both shy at the very beginning. In his essay about classical music in the twenty-first century, Salonen (2003) said, “It took Frank and myself some time to develop a close relationship, perhaps because we happen to have a similar temperament- a reticent, shy, northern manner. From the beginning, however, I was always amazed by Frank’s openness to the concerns of the orchestra, and also by his overwhelming curiosity- about everything. I found working with him to be a constant source of excitement and inspiration. There was never a moment of vanity in his approach to this project; he kept focus totally clear from the outset- the Concert Hall would be for the orchestra, for music, he assured us.” With the strong connection between them, Gehry was able to get important input from Salonen about his design, that helped him to understand what the musicians or orchestra were trying to achieve, when performing a symphony in a concert hall. Gehry cared about the feeling of the musicians so much that he tried to understand how they think of space, how they approach playing in different spaces, how they adapt themselves to a space, and what is in their minds when they perform. All of these inspirations were key considerations that he took into account when he designed the Walt Disney Concert Hall especially the concept of designing from inside out, with the auditorium as the design’s core. But how did he manage to achieve a design that met the expectations of the musicians?

Early in the design process, about forty models of existing auditoria and alternative plans for the Concert Hall were made by Gehry’s team. This was to allow a better understanding of the design for the acoustician. They chose Minoru Nagata, whose firm had a very high reputation in their acoustical work for auditoria such as Bunkan Kaikan, Suntory Hall, and other Japanese performance spaces. It was later taken over by Yasushisa Toyota as head of Nagata Acoustics in 1994. With professional advice and principles from the acoustician, Gehry was then been able to come

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up with solutions to meet the expectations of the musicians as previously mentioned. Gehry (2003) said, “We’re trying to understand your principles so well that they will guide us as we draw and not let us make mistakes,” Gehry (2003) advised Nagata. “We can interpret your ideas and make good architecture.” Every single question about the performance of acoustics was asked such as; the appropriateness of using wood as interior material for the hall as many people believe that wood is a material that offers warmth and resonance like the body of a cello, the size and number of seats for the hall as previously the Boston’s Symphony Hall which was built in 1900 was criticized for being too large, the area of the ceiling, the steepness of the seats, the height of the balconies, the angle of the inner walls and so on. All of these questions were asked because of Gehry and his team’s ambition to design an almost perfect space for music to be played to touch the hearts of the audiences; a space of upmost satisfaction for the musician.

Figure 8.Thirty scale models (One-sixth inch to one foot) built by the Gehry office to compare their design with existing halls.

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Based upon the indispensable spatial qualities that were made especially for music, for the orchestra, and for the audiences of Walt Disney Concert Hall, there is statement by Blesser and Salter (2007, p.130) that should be challenged. They say, “Neither a performance space nor a listening space needs to be physical; either or both can be created with electronics. By using closely placed microphones, multi-track recorders, and studio electronics, music can be created without a live performance and without an actual performance space. Similarly, by using headphones and binaural processing, listeners can experience music without a listening space.” Yes, it is true in terms of the similarity of the music produced with electronics compared to that being played in a concert hall. However, the sound of the music itself is the only element that is being perfectly imitated, while there are so many other experiences tied to the human senses that are being overlooked. In a concert hall, the audience are able to feel the oneness of the architecture and the music. Although a concert hall is designed to meet the requirements of acoustics, so that the orchestra is able to perform to their full potential, but at the same time, the music composers themselves also tried their best to compose music that is able to fit into the available context, which is the concert hall. In a concert hall, audiences can see, smell, touch and hear the architecture; see, they will be impressed by the magnificent interior design of the hall; smell, they can smell the material used and the long difficult process behind the design; touch, they will have interaction with their neighbours in the audience as architecture is meant to bring people together; hear, they will be directly exposed to all the reverberation and reflection effect of music from the walls, floors and ceiling. Besides that, the influence of the motions and emotions of the conductor, as well as the musicians is so strong that it is able to evoke the audiences’ sentiments and perhaps help them to recall memories from the past that are lie deep in their hearts. Lastly, Salonen (2003) says, “When one describes” good” sound, one often ends up in hopeless paradoxes, such as the assertion that a great concert hall has tremendous depth and warmth in its sound and yet is transparent at the same time. These attributes seem to contradict one another, but in fact, in a truly great hall, all this happens simultaneously.” Hence, a question, can all these happen without a physical performance or listening space?

Figure 9.Top and bottom: Models and staffs in Gehry Partners office in 1992.

Conclusion

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We will never know if there is gold until we dig for it; we will never know what the relationship between music and architecture is until we explore it. In responding to the question where architecture was said to have been influenced by alternate disciplines, such as this music, it will be more accurate to say that music and architecture actually influence each other. The one-way relationship between music and architecture is actually a two-way relationship, because when we talk about music and architecture, we are not only referring to them as songs or buildings but importantly as everything that has been involved i.e. the architect, the musician, the audience, the process, the connection, the friendship etc. The intention of using the example of Walt Disney Concert Hall is to show the idea, the connection, the process and the outcome when music and architecture meet each other. Last but not least, the project that lasted more than a decade has created so much interaction between music and architecture which has lasted even longer than some of the intimate friendships among us. They share, they help, they challenge, they care, they respect and of course they never forget each other, because they are of “a single soul dwelling in two bodies” (Descharmes, et al., 2011, p.138). Music is actually therefore a good “friend” of architecture.

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BibliographyBooksBeranek, L.L., 1962. Music, Acoustics & Architecture. New York: Wiley.

Blesser, B. and Salter, L.R., 2007. Spaces Speak, Are You Listening? : Experiencing Aural Architecture. London: MIT Press.

Bright, M., 1984. Cities Built To Music: Aesthetic Theories Of The Victorian Gothic Revival. Columbus: Ohio State University Press.

Descharmes, et al., eds., 2011. Varieties of Friendship: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Social Relationships. (Freunde - Gonner - Getreue) (English and German Edition). Goettingen: V&R unipress.

Gehry, F., 2003. Introduction. In: Gerace, G. and White, G., eds., 2003. Symphony: Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

Hammond, M., 2006. Performing Architecture: Opera houses, Theatres and Concert Halls For The Twenty-First Century. London: Merrell.

Koshalek, R. and Hutt, D., 2003. The Impossible Becomes Possible: The Making of Walt Disney Concert hall. In: Gerace, G. and White, G., eds., 2003. Symphony: Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

Ladd, K. and Kelly, T.A., 2004. The Power of A Positive Friend. Louisiana: Howard Publishing.

Salonen, E.P., 2003. Variations and Traditions: Classical Music In The Twenty-First Century. In: Gerace, G. and White, G., eds., 2003. Symphony: Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

Scher, S.P., ed., 1992. Music and text: critical inquiries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1992.

Watson, A. ed., 2006. Building A Masterpiece: The Sydney Opera house. Sydney: Powerhouse Publishing; Aldershot: Lund Humphries.

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Bibliography ImagesCover image: Currat, P., 2010. The Legend of “Tristan Und isole” In Lucerne. [electronic print] Available at: < http://www.philippecurrat.ch/index2.php?post/2010/11/21/LA-LEGENDE-DE-TRISTAN-UND-ISOLDE-A-LUCERNE> [Accessed 12 April 2012]

Figure 2: Delacroix, E., 1850. Pieta. [painting]

Figure 3: Gogh, V., 1889. Pieta. [painting]

Figure 4: Picart, B., [n.d.] Amphion Builds the Walls of Thebes by the Music of his Lyre, 1731. [electronic print] Available at: < http://www.1st-art-gallery.com/Bernard-Picart/Amphion-Builds-The-Walls-Of-Thebes-By-The-Music-Of-His-Lyre,-1731.html> [Accessed 14 April 2012]

Figure 5: Isnewpix, 2008. Theatre of Dionysus Eleuthereus | Athens. [electronic print] Available at: < http://www.flickr.com/photos/17676478@N04/2706003919/> [Accessed 14 April 2012]

Figure 6: Cheng, K.Y., 2010. Walt Disney Concert Hall. [electronic print] Available at:< http://www.flickr.com/photos/kycheng/4789567500/> [Ac-cessed 14 April 2012]

Figure 7: Mudford, G., 1988. Frank Gehry With His Competition-Winning Model and Diane Disney Miller, Fred Nicholas, and Ernest Fleischmann. [photograph] (Grant Mudford’s documentary photography)

Figure 8: Mudford, G., 1990. Thirty scale models. [photography] (Grant Mudford’s documentary photograph)

Figure 9 top: Mudford, G., 1993. Staff in Gehry Partners’ Office Working With Models. [photograph] (Grant Mudford’s documentary photography)

Figure 9 bottom: Mudford, G., 1993. One-tenth-scale Model Prepared For Acoustical testing. [photograph] (Grant mudford’s documentary photography)