A lecture by pianist Minna Pöllänen
Music and architecture have since antiquity been rivals for the title of mother of all the arts. Their connection
is fundamental, if more subtle perhaps, than the connections between music and poetry or dance. Instead of
architecture as frozen music, we could describe music as architecture that has become dynamic, sonorous
movement.
The role of music in holy spaces in different cultures has always been of highest importance. According to the oldest
treatise on architecture, Sthapatya Veda, space, stone and sound are manifestations of the one divine energy,
Vastu, become material energy. The builder of a Hindu temple has to be in harmony with these vibrations, in order
to bring the stone to sing. These ideas then travelled to ancient Greece where Pythagoras created his system of
harmony based on whole numbers.
In this lecture we will look and listen how this idea of world harmony has influenced western music and architecture,
and try to get an idea of what is beauty made of in music. If there is a piano available, I will also play music that has
a specially interesting relationship to space, such as a Bach fugue, Debussy’s la Cathedrale englouti. If not, we will
just listen to recorded music.