How does music speak to the buildings that house it? Music has always been a conversation with its environment, but from the 15th Century on, the craft became much more deliberate. And acoustic architecture has changed a lot since Dufay and the Gabrielis were composing their choral works for the Basilicas of Italy.
Palaces, cathedrals, concert halls all got the bespoke treatment from people like Bach and Beethoven. But as we reach the 20th Century and the machine-age, a different sonic logic starts to work. While the tradition was still maintained by people like Benjamin Britten, new minds like Edgard Varèse started to see other parallels between architecture and music. By the time we get to Iannis Xenakis, the architect-turned-composer, the idea of music and structure start to merge.
And today the disciplines of architecture and music are spawning brand new hybrids—architects design music … musicians perform buildings.
So, would you like to live in my song?
Guests
Richard Toop—Musicologist
Chelle Macnaughtan—Architect and Researcher
George Dreyfus—Australian composer
Lawrence Harvey—Lecturer and researcher at SIAL Studios, RMIT University in Melbourne
Jordan Lacey—Sound designer and researcher at SIAL Studios, RMIT University in Melbourne
Further Information
IRCAM—Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique
S.I.A.L—Spatial Information Architecture Laboratory
Credits
Producer—Michael Shirrefs
Sound Engineer—Carey Dell
© 2013—Michael Shirrefs & ABC RN