Music and Architecture

Sainte Marie De La Tourette


Well, just architecture really, a series of documentaries on Google Video, via QuickSilverScreen. I say there isn`t any music involved but actually the episode about the Le Corbusier designed Sainte Marie de La Tourette mentions Xenakis as he designed some elements of the building and they are related to his Metastasis composition (sections of which are used as background music in the documentary).

Here is a list of the programmes (with links natch, I don`t know who made this series or where it comes from or who owns the rights, so, erm, yeah)

Architecture -01- The Dessau Bauhaus
Architecture -03- Family Lodging in Guise
Architecture -05- The Georges Pompidou Centre
Architecture -06- The Vienna Savings Bank
Architecture -08- La Galleria Umberto I
Architecture -09- Santiago Calatrava - Satolas-TGV
Architecture -11- Félix Duban - School of the Beaux Arts
Architecture -13- Charles Garnier - The Opera Garnier
Architecture -14- Le Corbusier - The Cloister La Tourette
Architecture -16- Sullivan & Adler - Auditorium Building Chicago
Architecture -17- Alvaro Aalto - The Community Center of Säynätsalo Finland
Architecture -18- Claude-Nicolas Ledoux - The Saline of Arc-et-Senans
Architecture -19- Pierre Chareu - Maison de Verre
Architecture -21- Toyo Ito - The Sendaï Media Center
Architecture -22- The Abby Sainte Foy de Conques
Architecture -23- Frank O. Gehry - The Bilbao Guggenheim Museum

On the same note (pun intended) a book on this topic about/by Xenakis will be available in English soon (hopefully), Music of Architecture (don`t know much about the book but it looks interesting, will buy it when it`s available).

Also while i`m about it, here is a rather ambitious edition of the Charlie Rose show entitled 'The Future of Architecture'.

Bird Talk, It`s not Cheep

Ok ok, it`s a terrible title, but the content is worthwhile, a link to Mel Martin`s webpage featuring audio interviews with quite a few major jazz 'cats', Charlie Parker being top of the list.

Interesting (to me) that in the Paul Desmond interview Parker talks about wanting to study with Varese (Parker didn`t live long enough however). This is something most current post-bop jazzers wouldn`t expect perhaps, don`t just study the omnibook guys, listen to Varese, and Bartok and Stravinsky, other Parker favourites.

Quote of the Day (23/06/08)

'Thus the task is, not so much to see what no one has yet seen; but to think what no one has yet thought about that which everybody sees'

Erwin Schrödinger.

Quoted in Symmetry and the Monster by Mark Ronan. About which Ronan gave a lecture at Gresham College in February, free to stream here.

Work In Progress

Yes, I have been busy, away from the 'blog' and will explain what this is, for instance, fairly soon.

Quote Of The Day (08/05/08)

'To my dear wife, Peggie, who loves music but does not entirely approve of the 12 tone scale, this book is affectionately dedicated.'

Howard Hanson: Harmonic Materials of Modern Music

Ways of Seeing

Recently turned up on YouTube is John Berger`s 'classic' 1972 tv series 'Ways of Seeing' which spawned the arguably better known book of the same name. Four programmes in four parts, links below. (if you want to keep these programmes try downloading them, with Zamzar for instance)

Episode 1 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Episode 2 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Episode 3 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

Episode 4 Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

links found via Imomus

Tymoczko Literature

Currently the Arthur Scribner Bicentennial Preceptor (don`t ask) and also an Assistant Professor of Music at Princeton University, Dimitri Tymoczko has been getting some press recently for his forays into the world of harmony and geometry (not far removed from his colleague Paul Lansky`s interest in affine music, perhaps)

Discussed in the Telegraph for instance (referencing work published in Science). I post this here partly because of this recent geometry stuff but also because of the wealth of interesting written work on Tymoczko`s site. Enjoy (sort of). [the written work is listed in 'publications' on his Princeton page, cant link directly to it unfortunately]

There is also a Princeton podcast on this topic.


One of Tymoczko`s geometric images from this page.