In an effort to push the study of music, culture, and architecture a little deeper, I spent a few weeks last month researching Chinese music. My initial research of Arabic music during my thesis proved fruitful, as some of the ideas of proportion, heterophony, and organization found in music can be translated into an Architectural language (you may find a summary of my thesis presentation on this blog, or can access the whole thesis document here). Both Arts, while they may not have a direct link connecting them, share common cultural attributes that can be found trickling down in other arts as well. In order to pursue this further and take it to the next level, it was felt that a study of other musical regions was also important. The end expectant result (at the moment) is a new methodology that both architects and musicians can develop; one that extrapolates elements of the culture through other art-forms and then reapplying it to their own, creating an artifact that adheres to the regional cultural heritage without being too nostalgic about its traditions.
During the early stages of the research, I was struck by how little information is out there regarding pre 1949 PRC music, and most of the literature deal with how western music was adopted into the region. Starting with Fredercik Lau's Music in China (part of the Experiencing Music, Experiencing Culture series), I still had one of the major question reserved in my mind unanswered : What makes Chinese music Chinese?
Inspirational Quote of the week: "Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody." -Hery Wadsworth Longfellow
Over the past several years, there has been a question that I've been preoccupied with, keeping me up at night and all that: Can music of a particular region be reflected in the region's architecture? Research has shown that basic ideas about a particular music are rooted in its region's language. This thesis explores such a connection between music and architecture within the historic islamic city of Cairo, applying arabic melodic modes, or as they will be referred to from this point on as maqams, to create a place for listening, "il Masmaa".
Before getting into that, let me put you in context with some of the other research that has been done about this connection between music and architecture. Throughout my research, I have noticed that there are five main different ways of addressing this connection:
1) Music and architecture being connected through proportion, where the proportions of architecture correspond to the harmonic proportions of music.
2) Through rhythm, where, as debussy put it, "music is the space between notes".
3) Through acoustics, where architecture is utilized as a resonator of sound, much like a musical instrument.
4) Through synesthesia, or the mapping of one sense onto another, where architecture becomes the product of a reflex musical inspiration.
5) Or through a method of re-interpretation through deconstruction, where a rational algorithm is used for the translation between arts. An example would be StevenHoll'sstretto house, where he used composer Bela Bartok's "music for strings, percussion, and celesta" as a reference. The light curvy roof element represents the string section, the heavy masonry walls represents the percussion, while the celesta is represented in the walls that connect the other two elements.
My first stabs in applying architectonic form to music was through a series of animations I conducted on specific musical pieces. Since the research findings use western music as a reference, I felt that comparing a western music piece with an arabic piece was important.The pieces chosen were Pachelbel's canon in Dmaj, and Um Kalthoum's "Alf leila we leila".
Pairing these animations together I found to be very revealing. My expectations were that the differences between arabic and western music in respect to rhythm and musical intervals would be apparent in these animations. They are not. What is apparent however is how the musical structures differ from one another. The Canon piece is very cyclical in nature, there is a simple chord progression that goes on and on, which acts as a central unifying element, and the themes and variations are being applied on to it. Where the arabic piece is much more episodical. Other ideas could be extracted by pairing both these animations together, which I may choose to explore later down the line. I then make the comparison between this idea of musical structure with some of the architecture of the same period; the Central "big room" space of Palladio, to the series of courtyards, or episodes, of the ottoman house.
Applying some of these ideas to islamic Cairo, I took upon the most preserved street on the site, the main through fare between the historic gates of the fatamid city. I analyzed and animated it the same way I did the music. It became apparent to me, while walking down the street, that you can easily identify nine major different zones within this path, each zone an episode having its own identity and texture.
The following video is an amalgamation of audio-visual experiences of the site, composed to give you a feel of what its like walking down this path. On the animation and figure ground, I have pin pointed a series interventions that would be composed on the path. Each one of these interventions would deal with the macro-function of the street, which is now a public museum of islamic culture, as well as the micro-character of each zone, all using ideas of arabic music in design generation.
I was hoping to actually get to design all the interventions, but apparently I am too ambitious for my own good. The first zone, the moqadema, or introdctuion, was picked for further exploration, in hope to return to the street later in the process. Using the episodical ottoman house as a paradigm, the proposed building is set to explore the ideas of the maqam in arabic music.
The maqam is the foundation of all melody in arabic music, and the tetrachord is the most basic element of a maqam. Each tetrachord has a unique pattern of intervals - but more than that - rules for how you move between notes. Thus maqams have a very different kind of structure, feel, andimportance than western modal scales, and its these tetrachords that are in the center of this architectural project. The project is taking this basic unit of the tetrachord and, through juxtaposition, seeing how they interrelate in architectonic form.
Returning to il Masma3, Pragmatically, there are very few program requirements to fullfill, letting the focus of creating a variety and flexibility of spaces within the building to encourage communal interaction between those of knowledge and those seeking knowledge.The intent is to create 5 different spaces that correspond to each of the characters of these maqams. The most contributing factor that led to the generation of character is the application of the maqam interval proportions onto the vertical surface of the rooms. Such studies have also been done on a number of minarets that exist along the street, which interestingly enough, all seem to adhere to the same interval proportions as maqams. Spatially, each room is manipulated to emulate the character of each maqam.Upon entering the Northern gate, one finds themselves inside the Rast room - rast being the most celebrated maqam in egyptian music, used in most nationalistic and many folkloric songs. The Rast room functions as a pivot between the street and "el masma3", an in between space, serving both in public realm of the street and the private realm of "el masma3". The existing site at the moment has one entering and confronting a blank wall before walking into the main space, which seems like an awkward jog. We must remember that such a jog is not uncommon in the Islamic architecture within the city, where this is necessary for privacy reasons, and to give a sense of enclosure when we finally are in the triangular open space infront of Al Hakim mosque, one of the biggest and eldest mosques in Cairo.
The challenge is how to make the Rast room serve as an enclosure on its own, yet provide a strong sense of direction allowing traffic to flow through to the street. The current solutioncreates a large setback, as opposed to the existing condition, closes off the west wall which now serves as an entrance to il masma, and keeps the east wall a free standing element, offset to allow views to the mosque minaret acting like a drawing in device. From the Rast room, one can enter the building and navigate through all the other spaces.
The Bayati room is the room with many attitudes towards space, adhering to the notion that the bayatimaqam is one which many different variations occur; scholars don't agree on a distinct character, but many agree that the maqam has different flavors.
The Hijaz room has a very distinct and clear difference between the smaller and larger spaces, adhering tot the hijaz maqam interval pattern size (1/2 - 1 1/2 - 1/2).
Saba, the maqam attributed to music of sadness, is designed to utilize acoustics to create an vast echoing room, with a minimal source of light creeping into the building from the dome.
And the Sikah room, serves an above floor tight gallery space, peeking views into all the rooms, adhering to the notion that the Sikahmaqam has the most narrowest range out of the five, and is usually paired with some of the other maqams in the music.
On an ending note, My very first aim of this thesis, way back when, was to combat the excessive power of westernization and globalization that is sweeping Egypt by storm for the last 200 years or so. My hope was to find clues within the region's music to help push the architectural evolution in another direction, one more unique to its place and context. What I found instead was a method of deconstructing music to get a better understanding about a region's culture on issues that I may have previously overlooked or taken for granted. The result building is meant to be conceived as what critical regionalism would consider a defamiliarization of music. Unfortunately, much like architectural globalization, there has been a process of musical globalization as well, and these concepts of maqams are in danger of extinction. Such defamiliarization of the musical concepts only work then with repeat visitors, after students and scholars come and study these maqams over extended periods of time, the building starts to reveal itself, and after such connections are made, the student goes back out to rest of the city to make further connections with the architecture, in hope to understand ourselves better as Egyptians... In hope to understand ourselves better as arabs.
Taste in mouth of the week: Mango (God I miss Mango)
Smell of the week: Mango
Touch of the week: beard stubble
Synesthesia factor of the week: It seems that weird noises, that exist only in my head, seem to appear to remind me of something, like I have my own internal memory triggering alarm clock.
Moud of the week: Lazy
Inspirational Quote of the week:
The way to gain a good reputation, is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. -Socrates
finally I've been able to finish this!! The following two animations is attempting to address (or deconstruct) the experiential / sequential quality of the musical edifice.
Inspirational Quote of the week: "If you try to take a cat apart, to see how it works, what you have in your hands, is a non-working cat." - Frameshift
verb [ trans. ] analyze (a text or a linguistic or conceptual system) by deconstruction, typically in order to expose its hidden internal assumptions and contradictions and subvert its apparent significance or unity.
"You employ stone, wood, and concrete, and with these materials you build houses and palaces. That is construction. Ingenuity is at work.
But suddenly, you touch my heart, you do me good. I am happy and I say: "This is beautiful." That is architecture. Art enters in.
My house is practical. I thank you, as I might thank Railway engineers, or the Telephone service. You have not touched my heart.
But suppose that walls rise toward heaven in such a way that I am moved. I perceive your intentions. Your mood has been gentle, brutal, charming, or noble. The stones you have erected tell me so. You fix me to the place and my eyes regard it. They behold something which expresses a thought. A thought which reveals itself without wood or sound, but solely by means of shapes which stand in a certain relationship to one another. These shapes are such that they are clearly revealed in a light. The relationships between them have not necessarily any reference to what is practical or descriptive. They are a mathematical creation of our mind. They are the language of Architecture. By the use of raw materials and starting from conditions more or less utilitarian, you have established certain relationships which have aroused my emotions. This is Architecture." - Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture 1927
The technical aspect of any kind or art, wether its painting, composition, architecture, or even sport, will only take you so far to create something that others may call art. There is this hidden quality that differentiates drawing from painting, muzak from music, building from architecture, or aerobics from sport. A musician once told me that this hidden quality is attitude, two soloist can play the same exact musical phrase, but one possesses a certain "emph" in his playing, maybe using dynamics to accentuate some notes from the rest, allowing the phrase to be much more rhythmic than it actually is, while the other player, but not adding anything to the mix, is just reciting a bland musical phrase. Even if two gifted soloists play the same phrase, each with the right amount of attitude, the outcomes would be entirely different, as each would perform the phrase to reflect their own soul. That's why ever time you hear tchaikovsky's Swan Lake by a different orchestra and conductor it sounds slightly different.
The question becomes, staring from conditions more or less utilitarian, how do you turn lines, colors, and shapes into art; notes, chords, and rhythm into music; structure, material, and space into architecture; dribbling, kicking, and passing into sport. My thought is that there should always be an intent towards a work of art, even if the intent is to capture specific moods or spontaneity of the artist at that specific moment. A narrative or overriding story (or plan of attack in sports) that is not explicitly spelled out within the work of art, but could be understood through cycles of deconstruction. A level of abstraction is need to break the tangible artifact from its bonds of reality (from the frame off the wall) into a realm of conceptualization. It is then when you can start to translate, or transpose, one work of art into another.
Deconstruction is often mistaken for Synesthesia. The main difference between both is while Synesthesia may be post-rationalized (depending on the level of Synesthesia, the direct levels often could not be post-rationalized), it never is pre-rationalized. Deconstruction entails a
preemptive analysis of the subject matter, which means a certain degree of intellectualization is needed at the beginning, as opposed to the sensory reflex action of Synesthesia. That is why many believe that artists like Kandinsky, Paul Klee, and Scriabin are not Synesthetes as had been previously noted, but are Pseudo-Synesthetes, those who rely on association and memory rathen than the sensory reflex action of Synesthesia. In Point and Line to Plane, Kandinsky discusses how musical ideas have influenced his art, specifically mentioning his painting Little Dream In Red. He discusses how dynamics and sounds of musical instruments influences his choice of line weight and color. Although this is very much akin to a synesthete's perspective, Kandinsky states that although some of his correspondences are founded upon his own personal "feelings", others are founded upon cultural biases and mysticism.
Schematization of the correspondences between colors and musical timbres according to Kandinsky:
Colors
Musical timbres
Yellow
Trumpet; Sound of the fanfare
Azure
Flute
Blue
Deep sounds from the organ
Dark blue
Cello
Very dark blue
Bass
Green
Middle tones of the violin
White
Temporary pause
Black
Conclusive pause
Grey
Lack of sound
Bright red
Fanfare; Tuba/Horn
Crimson red
Drum-roll; Tuba/Horn
Cool red
Medium and deep tones of the cello
Bright cool red
Other tones of the violin
Orange
Middle bells of the church; Strong cantralto voice; Viola
Violet
English horn; Bagpipe
Deep purple
Deep tones of the woodwinds; Bassoon
There is more to these correspondences than just these Synesthestic reflexes. Some architects took specific events within a musical edifice and used that to as a conceptual bias for their architecture. Steven Holl used Bella Bartok's Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta as his inspiration for the Stretto House, "(the edifice) has a materiality in instrumentation which the architecture approaches in light and space." Both the piece and the building are formed in four sections, consisting of two modes: heavy orthogonal masonry representing the percussion, and light curvilinear metal roofing representing the strings.
Daniel Libeskind drew inspiration from Arnold Schoenberg's "Moses und Aron" for the Jewish Museum in Berlin. He was particularly interested in the sudden break of the music in the third act of the operetta, after two acts of fairly complex music, the music abruptly stops in the second act, allowing the silence to act as a figural element just as the music. Libeskind goes on to say that the unwritten third act is actually one of silence, allowing sounds from the audience to come into play. Whether Schoenberg actually intended that is highly questionable, but his contemporary John Cage "composed" 4'33'' based on that idea; not letting the musicians play their instruments for 4 and a half minutes, allowing the sounds from the audience to compose itself into the piece. Libeskind says that his "void" spaces within the museum are placed to achieve the same effect; a disorienting phase to allow the visitor to become a participant in a space allowing contemplation and reflection.
How people dance and sway to rhythm is subjective, but they do move to it nonetheless. The following series of exercises, done in Professor Michael Ambrose's ARCH670 class at the University of Maryland, attempts to deconstruct Extreme's "Get the Funk out". The song is an upbeat catchy, funk-rock/funk-metal tune. The objective of the project was to deconstruct the rhythmic sensations of the song. I asked former tap dancing state champion, Martiena Schneller, to improvise a routine for the song, and I analyzed her body movement accordingly.
