Music and Architecture: An Interpresence

• Main Author: Beesen, Rachel J
• Format: Others
• Published: ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst 2016
• Online Access: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/314; https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1352&context=masters_theses_2

Having an extensive background in classical music performance and theory, as I began to explore architecture, I immediately noticed profound similarities between the two art forms. After additional research, I found that I was but one among many who had explored this relationship. What is most fascinating about the history of the long- standing interest in music and architecture is the richness of variation amongst the attitudes, inspirations, and discoveries that have come forth from within the union. This variation confirms the robustness of this concept as a source of inspiration not only for architects and music theorists, but also for cross-disciplinary thinkers. The goal of this thesis is two-fold. The first is to distill and illuminate the most powerful aspects of the relationships between music and architecture. The findings are presented in sections I, Background Research and II, Case Studies. Section I contains a survey of a variety of points of contact between music and architecture. Section II explores how these points of contact have been manifested in precedent works by architects and in personal experiments. The second goal of this thesis is to synthesize the above information and enact it upon an architectural design, as presented in sections III, Existing Site & Program and IV, Design. This is accomplished through a series of translations of musical strategies (such as rhythm, syncopation, and melody) upon the building blocks of architecture (including massing, circulation, and spatial arrangement).