into instrument: a case for the musical tectonic

Syracuse University Syracuse University

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Architecture Thesis Prep School of Architecture Dissertations and Theses

12-2015

Into Instrument: A Case for the Musical Tectonic Into Instrument: A Case for the Musical Tectonic

Alex Lievens

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ALEXANDER LIEVENSFor architecture, tectonics is what emerges

hen construction is assembled in a way that roduces more than just the construction self. A kind of precious excess. For musical struments, tectonics is what emerges when

he construction of the instrument produces ore than just the sound that the instrument akes.

There is a study of musical instruments hat doesn’t strictly apply to architecture. But or some reason, architecture still starts to merge out of the artifacts of music. This thesis ontends that the link between musical instru-ents and architecture is tectonics, and that ctonic link can be understood and explored

hrough the nature of musical interfaces.

The user interfaces of a musical instru-ent is always thoughtfully considered, in rms of both music and construction. It will be gued that these interfaces – and the actions

ssociated with them – can be discussed nd explored architectonically, beyond just he sounds they produce. Music is being bstracted as an organizing principle, so that he expressive capabilities of user interface can e understood.

The connection between user interface nd action is open to tectonic expression. How e use instruments is what matters, not neces-

arily the sound that comes out of them. The otion of “use” can be conceived in terms of

he primary function of the object, as well as y the thoughtful positioning of the object in pace.

This thesis will observe and investigate

the relationship between musical objects and architectonic construction. It will begin to test relationships between musical notational systems and architectural notational systems. Musical instruments can provide key insights into how architecture might possess the same qualities of interactivity, action and personal value that musical instruments inherently own.

Within the discussion of music and archi-tecture is the constant threat of cliché, and of letting the trappings of musical genre cloud the architectural goals of the project. The hope is that including Music as the principle subject of an architectural problem will allow abstract architectural discussion to become almost literal. In including diagrams of music, dichot-omies like harmony and discord, excess and economy, rhetoric and geometry, will have to be negotiated as real compositional obstacles.

nto Instruments Case for the Musical Tectonic

Advisor: MARK LINDER

ALEXANDER LIEVENS

3

INTO instrument

ALEX LIEVENS

A CASE FOR THE MUSICAL TECTONIC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

TAXONOMY

ORGANS & ORDERS

INTO INTERFACE

INSTRUMENTURE (ARCHITECTMENT?)

A CASE FOR THE MUSICAL TECTONICThe tricky ground between

frame and stereotomy

Means of sound-making

Means of music-making

Out of interface; into outer-face

De-sounding music with architecture

The tectonics of play

Abstract

0

1

2

3

4

5

I’M MAKING INSTRUMENTS!

ABSTRACT

Instruments are constructed

objects. The nature of an

instrument’s construction is often

the primary indicator of the

instrument’s character. Musical

instruments provide mechanisms

which allow them to control

pitch. Depending on the kind of

instrument, the qualities of the

pitch can also be manipulated.

They are alive; they must be

moved and transformed in order

to produce their distinctive sounds.

If we begin to consider them as

tectonic objects, both literally and

fi guratively, then it would be fair

to categorize them as the most

inherently dynamic and interactive

tectonic objects on the spectrum.

The motivation behind this

thesis lies in the belief that musical

instruments are more fun than

architecture. These objects allow

for a kind of play which architecture

accommodates and houses, but

has yet to live up to. How can

tectonics evolve to include issues

of interactivity, of which are most

clearly demonstrated by the

tectonic construction and function

of musical instruments?

Musical instruments are self-

exhaustive systems. This thesis

will observe and investigate the

relationship between musical

objects and architectonic

construction. It will begin to

test relationships between

musical notational systems and

architectural notational systems.

Musical instruments can provide

key insights into how architecture

might possess the same qualities

of interactivity, action and personal

value that musical instruments

inherently own.

DECORATIVE CLADDING THE THING INSIDE

CARIBBEAN HUT atGREAT EXHIBITION OF 1851

PRIMITIVE HUT 1753

“tectonic nucleus”INSTITUTIONALSTATUS

represent

symbolize

kernform

1) HEARTH

2) EARTHWORK

knot and joint

3) FRAMEWORK

4) ROOF

kunstform REVEALS

}

KARL BOTTICHER (1874)

GOTTFRIED SEMPER (1851)

Theory of Formal Beauty (1856)

“...no longer grouped architecture with painting and sculpture as plastic art, but instead with dance and music as cosmic art, as an ontological world-making art rather than representational art.”

REPLACED

spiritual nexus of architecture, with links to the altar

edify - educate, strengthen and instruct

NON-SPATIAL

“...in which members of varying lengths are conjoined to encompass a spatial field.”

“...compressive mass that, while it may embody space, is constructed through the piling up of identical units.”

Responding to the state of commodity culture of post-modernism, arguing that it was fueled by Romanticism and enacted through scenographic architecture.

“...building is ontological rather than representational in character, and that built form is a presence rather than something standing for an absence.”

immateriality of frame

“[We] tend to be unaware of the ontological consequences of these differences”:

SKY

EARTH

FRAME (light) (dark)STEREOTOMY

ONTOLOGICAL (structural-technical)

REPRESENTATIONAL (structural-symbolic)

Allowing for a constructional element to emphasize an object’s static role and cultural status.

Allowing for a constructional element to be hidden, but present.

KENNETH FRAMPTON (1990)

materiality of mass

“Within architectural discourse, tectonics always concerns issues of building and construction, but never has tectonics been narrowly objective. At the very least, tectonics betrays complex strategies of representation.”

MICHAEL SCHWARZER (1996)

TECTONICS... seems condemned to the dominion of fact.

(GREEK)tekton “builder” or “carpenter”

(LATE)

German theorists refer to tectonics more broadly as

TECTONICS has been deconstructed alongside other devices (e.g. objective vision, linear perspective) for its insinuation of a logic of

the PHENOMENOLOGICAL experience of craft and detailing.

Tectonics as supportive of

19th CENTURY

20th CENTURY

20th CENTURY

ARCHITECTURE’S

coordination of

SYSTEMS OFDECORATION

with

continuity and integration.

MITCHELL

“It is not much of a stretch to claim that through tectonics the necessity of fact gives way to the passions of necessity.”

“Here tectonics is suspended between urges for overpowering and dissolving materiality, mimetic contemplation and technological advance, individual self-realization and nation-building.

Tectonics is at once total experience and splintering representational tale.”

“THE CREATION OF A TIMELESS, TIMEBOUND MOMENT:a mythical quest by Frampton’s standards.

”Tectonics, as the shaping of an authentic reality, is an attempt at salvation.”

“The tectonic presents itself as a mode by which to express these different states and thereby as a means for accomodating, through inflections, the various conitions under which different things appear and sustain themselves.”

I don’t think there’s a hollowness in architecture anymore.. I think today’s crisis is an overwhelming density. A culture of “too much”: too much content; too much to watch, too much to see, too much to read, too much to find meaning in! How is anything special in a sea of specialties?

Tectonics is the product of ideas as much as a construction of products. It encompasses great attempts to redeem the hollowness of architecture in an age of global capitalism and commodity culture.”

“Tectonic strategies [...] bring as much

disruption as stability to architecture.”

TECTONICS as... a counter hegemonic condition of knowledge.

FRAMPTON

A CASE FOR THE MUSICAL TECTONIC

instrument*

an expressive extension of the individual

scientific apparatus, “allowing us to peer into worlds

beyond our normal senses”

both an expressive extension and scientific apparatus

instrument as:

WHAT IS AN INSTRUMENT?

THE TECTONIC LANGUAGE

OF MUSIC THEORY

Understanding music as

idenitcal pieces to be assembled

and disassembled. A certain note

next to another certain note will

present harmony or tension,

depending upon the note.

Conventional music requires

geometric clarity; as such, musical

instruments must refl ect this

clarity without fail and without fl aw.

Why has geometric perfection

stuck around in music, but not

in architecture? Does it still have

a place here? What can music

theory reveal about architecture?

Disregarding genre for a

second, the structures of music

and all of its conventional parts exist

in a self exhausting system, bound

by the number 12. Musical “notes”

can be understood as a serial

system, which can be exploited

architecturally, while still remaining

true to the rules of scale, chord

structure and intervals.

These principles are tectonic,

because they inform structural

principles of musical composition.

They represent an assembly of

pieces, part-to-whole relationships

and the groundwork for what one

might consider ‘song’ or music.

SONG AS ASSEMBLY

CHROMATIC SCALE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

DIATONIC SCALE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

PENTATONIC SCALE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

minor 2nd

major 2nd

minor 3rd

perfect 4th

tritone

perfect 5th

minor 6th

major 6th

minor 7th

major 7th

m2

M2

m3

major 3rd M3

P4

T

P5

m6

M6

m7

M7

HARMONY!

DISCORD!

CHROMATIC SCALE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

DIATONIC SCALE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

PENTATONIC SCALE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

minor 2nd

major 2nd

minor 3rd

perfect 4th

tritone

perfect 5th

minor 6th

major 6th

minor 7th

major 7th

m2

M2

m3

major 3rd M3

P4

T

P5

m6

M6

m7

M7

HARMONY!

DISCORD!

SCALES & INTERVALS

HARMONY!

m3M3 m3 M3

THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS

MAJOR

MINOR

TAXONOMY

HORNBOSTEL-SACHS METHOD

means of sound-making

means of music-making

+

CHROMATIC BARS

FINGER/FRETBOARD

KEYBOARD VALVES/OPENINGS

PIPE AEROPHONES

BRASS REED PIPE EDGE

WITHOUT VALVES

animal horn (shofar)

didjeridu bulge

trombone

cornets

french horn euphonium

saxophone silver flute

saxophone

single reed bagpipe

recorder

organ flute pipe

oboe

double reed bagpipe

jug

flute piccolo

DOUBLE REEDS

bassoon

conch shell

WHISTLE FLUTES

whistle

SINGLE REEDS

clarinet

HORNBOSTEL-SACHS

WITH VALVES

trumpets

TREE FLUTES

panpipes

SINGLE REED

DOUBLE REED

any musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of

air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes, and without the vibration of the instrument itself adding considerably to the sound.

FREE AEROPHONES

FREE REED

BEATING REED

human voice

organ reed pipes

leaf

sho

khaem harmonica

concertina

pipe organ

pipe organ

bandeon

accordianindia

harmonium

harmonium

reed organ

pedal concertina

barrel organ orchestrion

electric chord organ

FRAMED REED

sheng

UNFRAMED REED

bull-roarer

HORNBHORNBOSTEL-SACHS means

aeolian harp

RUBBED

BLOWN

any musical instrument which produces sound primarily by way of vibrating a stretched

membrane.

INDETERMINATE

PITCHDETERMINATE

PITCH

MEMBRANO-PHONES

bass drum

bongos congas

tambourine

roto drums

friction drum

kazoo

STRUCK STRUCK

snare drum

timpani

TEL-SACHS HORNBOSTEL-SACHS und-making

any musical instrument that creates sound primarily by the instrument as a whole

vibrating—without the use of strings or membranes.

UNPITCHED PITCHED

IDIOPHONES

castanets

jingles

bell

automata

gong

cymbal

rimba

prayer bowls

kalimba

mbira

STRUCK STRUCK

PLUCKED

SHAKEN

slit drum

rattle triangle

music box

HORNBOSTEL-SACHS

xylophone

celesta

RUBBED

glass harmonica

a musical instrument that makes sound by way of a vibrating string or strings stretched between two points.

CHORDOPHONES

violin viola

cello contrabass

hammered dulcimer

ukulele

banjo mandolin

harpsichord harp

PITCHED

STRUCK

BOWED

PLUCKED

piano

guitar

HORNBOSTEL-SACHS

violin

INTO INTERFACE

MUSICAL INTERFACE to ACTION

CHROMATIC BARS

FINGER/FRETBOARD

KEYBOARD

MUSICAL INTERFACE to ACTION

CHROMATIC BARS

FINGER/FRETBOARD

?

KEYBOARDVALVES/

OPENINGS

VALVES/OPENINGS

THE COMPANIONGreat instrument for improvisational activity. Not many “parts” to work with; and range of possibility is not often present. This tectonic requires creative combinations which can also get in the way of its other operations. These interfaces are often on instruments that can be easily transoported. There is a sense of ease.

POLE D

SO

DANCE

O-IL

LOS TROMPOS

HECTOR ASWARE

KEYBOARDSSeems to present itself all at once. “Music” is presented and organized as legible scales, and most systematically out of all of the interfaces. But it is representational. The key doesn’t make the sound. It represents the note. It tells you what you want hear an what you want to know.

THE TOTAL PACKAGE

PIANO

“PLAYING TH

DAVID

HE BUILDING”

D BYRNE

HELSINKI CATHEDRAL PIPE ORGAN

E. F. WINCKEL

FINGER/FRETBOARDSA way to understand compartmentalizing and construction of grids. Music as units. Music as abstraction and geometry. It wants you to know that it’s music, but it won’t necessarily be clear about how you can use it. It can’t really make up its mind. It has to compartmentalize and post-rationalize.

THE POLITICIAN

GUITAR GUY WEXNER CENTER F

FOR VISUAL ARTS FENESTRATION AT LA TOURETTE

CHROMATIC BARS

THE GURUExtremely minimaL. The guru speaks in aphorisms; quickly and with truth. Would be often found outside and in nature. Members of this system refl ect the range of the chromatic scale.

CHIMES“VOL

LUME”

ARCHITECTMENT (INSTRUMENTURE?)

EXPERIMENT #1

The following is a tool proposed

for negotiating between the two

worlds of frame and stereotomy. It

is both empty frame and stackable

brick. This tectonic dichotomy

will be used to illustrate the

inherent musical relationships

of its diagram.. The circle of fi fths

was literally transposed into the

ground work, so as to lay the

“spots” where 12 identical objects

could congregate to form the 12

tones of a conventional musical

scale.

These objects can be fl ipped

and turned, to make it possible to

situate with each other in a self-

exhaustive system of varations.

These variations seek to make

musical relationships between

“notes” clear. Some variations

include fl ipping an object from

its root note to form a musical

path in plan. Certain notes, when

placed next to each other, will

be clear examples of harmony

or discord, depending on which

note they situate next to. A fi eld of

these relationships will serve as a

didactic arena for interaction with

these objects specifi cally through

its system of assembly.

BETWEEN FRAME AND STEREOTOMY

SONG AS “BUILDING” AS

ARCHITECTURE AS MUSIC AS

assemblyassembly

song building

RESTING POSITION

OPEN MAJORS

MINOR FIELD

MAJOR FIELD

EXPERIMENT #2

THE FRAME

HIGH VAULT

LOW VAULT

RESPONSIVE REST

“VIOLIN” “GUITAR”

ORGANS & ORDERS

If we are to admit that organs

are in fact architectural, then we

should be so inclined to observe

and understand and critique its

architectural qualities.

Most of the largest scale organs

also make use of the “facade pipe”

which is a pipe that rests within the

casing of the front pipes. These

pipes don’t make any sound. They

look like music trying to fi t in with

architecture.

Instead of the previous method

– rooting through a taxonomy of

instruments to extract something

architectural – we start to notice

in organs, architecture beginning

to itself emerge out of musical

instruments. Architectural tectonics

become the mode of expressing

ornament for musical instruments

at this scale, as a way to supply or

represent meaning.

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AS ARCHITECTONIC

OBJECTS

BIBLIOGRAPHIESIMAGES:

KEYBOARDS“Diverse “Y”-shaped Modern Residence in The Netherlands: Villa 1 - Freshome.com.” Freshomecom Diverse Y-shaped Modern Residence in The Netherlands Villa 1 Comments. March 29, 2012. Accessed December 19, 2015. http://freshome.com/2012/03/29/diverse-y-shaped-modern-residence-in-the-netherlands-villa-1/.

“David Byrne Demonstrates Playing the Building.” Vimeo. Accessed December 19, 2015. https://vimeo.com/52888326.

“Dark Roasted Blend: The World’s Most Magnifi cent Pipe Organs.” Dark Roasted Blend. Accessed December 19, 2015. http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2009/10/worlds-most-magnifi cent-pipe-organs.html.

VALVES/HOLES“Popular Culture - Boundless Open Textbook.” Boundless. Accessed December 19, 2015. https://www.boundless.com/u-s-history/textbooks/boundless-u-s-history-textbook/the-new-deal-1933-1940-25/culture-in-the-thirties-197/popular-culture-1090-2508/

Update: Pole Dance / SO-IL, by Iwan Baan.” ArchDaily. June 27, 2010. Accessed December 19, 2015. http://www.archdaily.com/66288/pole-dance-update-so-il/.

“Los Trompos: La Tradición Mexicana Reinterpretada Por Héctor Esrawe E Ignacio Cadena. - Diariodesign.com.” Diariodesign.com. May 12, 2015. Accessed December 19, 2015. http://diariodesign.com/2015/05/los-trompos-la-tradicion-mexicana-reinterpretada-por-hector-esrawe-e-ignacio-cadena/.

FINGER/FRETBOARDSNational Lampoon’s Animal House. Dir. John Landis. Perf. Thomas Hulce, Stephen Furst, and John Belushi. 1978.

“AD Classics: Wexner Center for the Arts / Peter Eisenman.” ArchDaily. N.p., 16 Oct. 2014. Web. 18 Dec. 2015.

Grant, M. J. “Music and Architecture. By Iannis Xenakis. Comp., Trans., and Ed. Sharon Kanach.”Music and Letters, 2010, 465-67.

CHROMATIC BARS“Wind Chime.” The World’s Best Photos of Windchimes - Flickr Hive Mind. Accessed December 19, 2015. http://fl ickrhivemind.net/Tags/windchimes/Interesting

Zimoun volume (“Zimoun : Compilation Video 3.6.” Vimeo. Accessed December 19, 2015. https://vimeo.com/7235817.

“Weekend Cabin Stirs Up Controversy in Washington Valley.” Adventure Journal RSS. Accessed December 19, 2015. http://adventure-journal.com/2013/05/weekend-cabin-stirs-up-

TEXT:

Semper, Gottfried. The Four Elements of Architecture and Other Writings. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1989.

Schwarzer, Mitchell. Ontology and Representation in Karl Bö tticher’s Theory of Tectonics. 1993.

Frampton, Kenneth, and John Cava. Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995.

Schwarzer, Mitchell. “Tectonics Unbound: KERNFORM AND KUNSTFORM REVISITED!” ANY: Architecture New York, 1996, 12-15.

Novak, Marcos. “Liquid Architectures of Cyberspace.” Cyberspace: First Steps, edited by Michael Benedikt. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1992.

“Revision of the Hornbostel-Sachs Classifi cation of Musical Instruments by the MIMO Consortium.” Musical Instruments Museum Online. Accessed December 19, 2015. http://www.mimo-international.com/documents/Hornbostel Sachs.pdf.