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Deciphering the frozen music in building architecture and vice-versa process

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Abstract

Efforts to discover the logic of unfreezing the music in architecture started with Vitruvius (80–15 BC) and were continued in the modern era by Iannis Xenakis, among many others. Through these efforts, a process for unfreezing the architecture in music has gradually been constructed. Initially, rhythm, texture, harmony, geometry, proportion and dynamics were considered as the basis of complimentary aural and visual formats used to evolve aural parameters and their corresponding visual parameters. These parameters, which are involved in both visual (architecture) and aural (music) formats form the logic used to decipher music from architecture and vice versa. Using scaled axes as a basis for both aural and visual parameters, a comparison emerged. Thus, aural parameters can be extracted from a grid (the visual parameters in the axes) to compose music as well as the reverse process—visual parameters can be extracted from the grid (the aural parameters in the axes) to arrive at an architectural design. This approach resulted in the development of logic.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, 620 015, India

    Anu Sendhil, K. Muthukkumaran & S. A. Veerapandian

  2. Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, 620 015, India

    M. Punniyamoorthy

  3. Department of Architecture, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, 620 015, India

    G. Sangeetha

Authors
  1. Anu Sendhil
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  2. K. Muthukkumaran
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  3. M. Punniyamoorthy
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  4. S. A. Veerapandian
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  5. G. Sangeetha
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Correspondence to M. Punniyamoorthy.

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Appendices

Appendix 1: Unfreezing music from architectural design

Taj Mahal (mausoleum at Agra, India) was designated as the UNESCO World Heritage site. A two-dimensional design of the building is taken as an example to extract the music.

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2D architectural design of Taj Mahal

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Taj Mahal fitted in 2D musical grid

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The score view of the musical output file is attached as a supplement file.

Appendix 2: Deciphering architectural design from music

The music file of the song “Sheep may safely graze”, a Baroque composition of 1713 by Johann Sebastian Bach is attached as a supplement file. The aural parameters are extracted and fitted in the visual grid to arrive at the visual representation of the music.

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2D visual representation of “Sheep may safely graze” baroque song

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Sendhil, A., K., M., M., P. et al. Deciphering the frozen music in building architecture and vice-versa process. Multimed Tools Appl 79, 13501–13532 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-019-08316-3

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