Hegel once hinted at the relationship between music and architecture in this way: "Music and architecture are the most similar, because like architecture, music puts its creation on proportion and structure." Indeed, architecture as a kind of plastic art, it is not a simple pile of steel, cement, it can stimulate the same listening to music similar emotional response. And in the music, we can grasp certain elements of architecture from its formal beauty.
Beethoven's Third (Heroic) Symphony is said to have been inspired by Parisian architecture. Schumann, on the other hand, sought to represent the magnificent grandeur of Cologne Cathedral in his Third Symphony.
Tchaikovsky praised, "The few sheets of music written by the great musicians, inspired by the cathedral's overwhelming beauty, have erected for posterity an immortal monument depicting the profound inner world of mankind, as if it were the cathedral itself."
Goethe, the great German poet, said he felt the melody of the music y as he walked within the portico of the front square of the Roman basilica designed by Michelangelo.
The unique Chinese garden architecture has a high aesthetic value. Winding paths, according to the bamboo, rockery, water, sparse flowers and trees, constituting a quiet, beautiful aesthetic mood. It is this unique Jiangnan style architecture brewed out of the fresh and beautiful Jiangnan bamboo music, such as "Plum Blossom Three", "in the flower of six boards" and so on.
China's master architect Liang Sicheng discovered the rhythm of harmony from within the Summer Palace's promenade. When standing on the top of Jingshan Mountain overlooking the Forbidden City complex in Beijing, along the central axis we can see the theme melody and counterpoint of the symphony in ancient Chinese architecture.
In music, "repetition" is one of the most important basic techniques of compositional skill, and so is architectural design, with striking similarities between the two. In architecture, of course, this repetition must be the repetition of visually visible elements induced by the building's design, such as light and shadow, unquestioned color, columns, openings, and interior volume, to name just a few.
Much of the effect of a building relies on the harmonization of these rhythmic relationships. Simplicity and a sense of power to achieve. The repetition of the arches of the great Roman gladiator arena, the graceful colonnades of the Greek temples, the repetition of the pointed arches and verticals of the Gothic churches, and the repetition of the promenade of the Summer Palace in Beijing, etc., have the kind of regular repetitions that can be found in classical music.
So, those high and low undulating architectural complexes have that harmonious, coordinated, because they are rich in beauty, "melody", body view of the unique laws of architectural beauty. Those magnificent symphonies so well-proportioned and complete, because they have a rigorous structure, reflecting the unique laws of musical beauty.
Exquisite architecture is solidified music. Especially those who have been in the history and great music related to the building is more so, people in nostalgia floating in the immortal melody. Legend has it that in the ancient West, there was a beautiful young singer, and one day he used the goddess of music, Muse, to give him a magical seven-stringed zither, playing the beautiful music.
At the end of the song, the mountains moved, everything danced, and even the surrounding houses and buildings, masonry, wood and stone, also responded to, and turned into solid "notes", composed of "solidified music". Music is beautiful, when the beauty of music is attached to the material media of the building, it makes the building produce a beautiful melody.
Expanded Information
Inherent Connection between Music and Architecture:
Architecture is a form-based plastic art that provokes an emotional response similar to listening to music. In music, we can grasp certain elements of architecture from its formal beauty. In the Middle Ages, the Gothic buildings with pointed roofs guided people to look up to the sky; in the Renaissance, the domed buildings prevailed, showing the humanist idea, not telling people to look to God, but to look down to the earth.
In the creation of music, "repetition" is one of the most important basic techniques of compositional skills, and architectural design, too, there are striking similarities between the two. In architecture, of course, this repetition must be the repetition of visually visible elements induced by the building's design, such as light and shadow, unquestioned color, columns, openings, and interior volume, to name just a few.
Much of the effect of a building relies on the harmonization of these rhythmic relationships. Simplicity and a sense of power to achieve. The repetition of the arches of the great Roman gladiator arena, the graceful colonnades of the Greek temples, the repetition of the pointed arches and verticals of the Gothic churches, and the repetition of the promenade of the Summer Palace in Beijing, etc., have the kind of regular repetitions that can be found in classical music.
So, those high and low undulating architectural complexes have that harmonious, coordinated, because they are rich in beauty, "melody", body view of the unique laws of architectural beauty. Those magnificent symphonies so well-proportioned and complete, because they have a rigorous structure, reflecting the unique laws of musical beauty.
The beauty of music also includes the beauty of musical structure. However, the structure of music is limited by the content of the subject matter of the work and serves it. Structure in the theme of the repetition, variation, expansion, derivation, contrast, reproduction and other processes, sometimes emphasizing change, sometimes emphasizing unity, completely based on the content needs. For example: the violin concerto "Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai" reproduces the part of the author according to the needs of the content of the work on the omission of the presentation of the part of the sub-part had appeared in the "window *** read".
Composers in the creation of music, indeed, often intentionally or unintentionally by the architectural art of more or less influence. For example: Beethoven in the composition of the "Heroic Symphony", has been inspired by certain architectural complexes in Paris. Schumann in his Third Symphony IX had wanted to show the appearance of the Cologne Cathedral magnificent and majestic.
As for the architectural design of the theme and image (modeling), unity and balance, contrast and harmony, proportion and scale, rhythm and tempo, repetition and change, character are style, color and tone and so on the law of architectural art, which is the law of art of music creation in the aesthetic information, but also closely related. Architectural engineering designers if you can learn more about a little music knowledge, comprehensively improve their own artistic qualities and cultivation, will be in the architectural design to get more and more freedom, get more useful enlightenment and wonderful inspiration.