Music & Architecture

This semester was my first at Gallatin.  I applied into the music composition program at Steinhardt and stayed there for three semesters before feeling that I needed a change.  I was losing interest in the theories and principles taught in music school, not that they were no longer pertinent, but rather, I felt a shifting of focus into a realm of music that didn’t operate on the moment to moment, fixed basis of standard notation.  

I was beginning to see a strong and helpful connection between the music I was interested in and architecture.  In short, a building establishes certain confines, and in doing so, caters to certain functions while making others quite difficult.  In some way, it limits what a person can do inside of its walls, but in no way does it determine moment to moment activity.  Toward the end of last year I started experimenting with a system of graphic notation; my goal was to provide a score to an entire piece within the limit of one page.  I divided the page into two boxes, creating two distinct sections, each containing a set of musical directions and possibilities.  It struck me one day that this sort of score was working very similarly in relation to the improvisor/performer as a building works in relation to its inhabitant(s): In both cases, certain predetermined structures limit what can go on inside of them while allowing and encouraging creative decisions to be made in order to best use this predetermined material to and within its limits.

When I decided to transfer to Gallatin, this interest in architecture was very much at the front of my mind, and while looking through courses, this one was the first to catch my eye.  I wanted to better understand the effects of space and place in order to work towards a new way of working with music.  I expected the course to take a mostly spiritual standpoint, and through Tuan, this expectation continued.  However, as we moved onward, the course quickly shifted toward a concern for space and place within the real world, and as a result, my understanding, awareness, and concern for the “built environment” was heightened, while my interest in the spirituality of space and place with regards to music, continued to be stimulated.  

During the Fall, I proposed to create a sound installation as part of a fellowship program at school.  I had never before worked in this way, as much of last year was spent writing chamber music for other musicians to play.  I spent a lot of time, some of it thinking, some of it procrastinating, and finally, during the Spring, started working on this installation, which I showed at the Gallatin Arts Festival.  Many of my concerns and thoughts either originated in or were informed by this class, and so I can confirm with certainty the positive effect it had on me.  

This summer I am going to study with a favorite composer of mine in Paris, whose work seems to share a consideration of space, as he often writes for monolithic forces, not for the complexity of hundreds of intertwining parts, but for the effect that such a crowd can have on the way the music moves in space.  Whatever I am working on or doing while there, I am sure that Kunstler, with his high regard for the Parisian streets and cafés, and our classes’ concern for the urban environment will be ever-present.  

(Photo taken by me of an aforementioned score)