Saturday, September 4, 2010

Sound and Space in Renaissance Venice

Interesting thought....it appears that art and music do mimic each other.  So....with this thought in mind....I read the description of this book.....


While composers of sacred music in 16th-century Venice were devising increasingly complex choral polyphony, Venetian architects began to develop new configurations of sacred space. This fascinating book explores the direct relationship between architectural design and sacred music in Renaissance Venice. Deborah Howard and Laura Moretti combine historical research into the architectural and liturgical traditions of a dozen Venetian churches with the results of a parallel series of scientific surveys and live choral experiments of the acoustic properties of the chosen buildings.

I then recalled a two hour ride last week from Maine to Mass.,  with the "grands" in the 20 year old's car.  The music was not really music, because there was no melody, just an incessant cacophony of noise, whether drum beats, or chants of the street , that we now call music.   It this is the music that is the mode of  the coming society, what is the architecture of this generation going to spawn?  Will we lose the grace and beauty of arches, vaulted ceilings and flowing parts, and face a revolution of angles, odd shapes and mismatches that mirrors the lack of melody, the lack of  flowing sound that teases the ear to hear more?
Here is something to browse, see if you can hear the street chants and drums in the visions we are creating!  Just browsing can be interesting.

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