Musical Harmony in Architecture אדריכלות ישראלית Architecture of Israel #135 November 2023 | | 92 food for thought musical harmony in architecture Ami R ש n Considered a well known Weimar regime advocate, the 18th-century philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (once) said, "Music is liquid architecture while Architecture is frozen music". And since then, this misleading comment has been quoted blindly by all who do not really understand what architecture is, and certainly not the uniqueness of the flowing Baroque architecture Goethe actually referred to. Beyond the fact that the quote contributes nothing to understanding the relationship between the two disciplines, Goethe was wrong when he presented music as a superior dynamic expression, as opposed to seemingly static architecture. Renaissance Architect Leon Batista Alberti was more moderate when he claimed that characteristics that delight the eye may also delight the ear. Well, while musical texture refers to limited layers of sounds and rhythms produced by a number of sources, architectural texture is expressed in countless shapes, materials, and proportions, not to mention functional connections that allocate and connect various relationships throughout the structure. Nevertheless, the question is: how can one extract defined terms that may give each of them a synergic value from the comparison between two disciplines so different one from the other? It is precisely in light of this that it is interesting to note that any attempt to understand the abstract concept of "harmony" must hark back to the source of the term in Greek referring to the mythical anecdote concerning the goddess, Harmony - the daughter of Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love and beauty - and Ares, the seeker of war. All this merely to describe an analogously balanced situation were 'good' and 'evil' may dwell together in Harmony as long as they are a balanced synergy. Furthermore, while harmony is reduced in music to any two or more different sounds regardless of the nature of the frequency interval, architectural harmony is achieved when there is a synergic coordination between its elements that allows it to survive the test of time. In art, for instance, harmony can be achieved by visual organization of components which create aesthetic composition; through color, line or shape. Although the term "aesthetic" (or beautiful) is controversial, one can find harmony in any organization of the details whether they are contradictory, in order to create stress, or complementary, to achieve relaxation. Since architecture is a dynamic expression, and not frozen, as Goethe claimed, the difference between a planned condition and a chaotic one is delicate, and due to the fact that each building begins its life after completion, it is born only after it is inhabited, when its unknown user takes control. In view of this it is worth noting that Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce, who published the massive "Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistics" stated that since aesthetics is a culture-dependent abstract term, one should settle for the most common example in any given situation. This elementary definition indicates that, unlike art and architecture, which clarify endless interpretations of a large number of components, harmonious expression in music can be achieved by organizing a limited number of components by which a wide range of variations can be obtained. That is, by arranging the sequence of chords in a certain order. And similarly to architecture, the nature of a musical structure depends on the order of things (syntax), and not necessarily on the meaning of signs that give the composition its unique significance. As with any culture-dependent language, music also contains nuances which give the message its uniqueness, the most prominent of which being the difference between minor chords, which express sadness, and major chords, which express an optimistic and joyful vibe. In other words, the melody is the leading line, the rhythm is the grid and the harmony is the 3D form which gives the creation its depth - in this way, architecture is similar to music. And, like any language, both disciplines have evolved over the years in accordance with mental, emotional and spiritual progression, at the center of which is the Ego (Edgar Case), which motivates every artistic work, and today more than ever - the marketing dimension of architecture. It is important to note that although the approach to harmony has changed over generations, and what was previously considered a screeching dissonant chord has come to be, since the beginning of the modern period, regarded as a reasonable expression to the Western ear. This is reflected in the works of innovative composers such as Schoenberg, who formulated the dodecaphonic technique in the 1920s, eliminating the hierarchical system of sounds based on 12 tones which can appear in different variations. Introduced in the early twentieth century, jazz enriched Western music based on
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