Architecture and Music.

The subjective complexities reflected in the formulation of music is a useful analogy in relation to the general application of architecture. For example if one is to take a Haydn Mass and an Eric Clapton concert both may, depending of course on the quality of the performance, produce the same end result of a sublime musical experience. However despite similarities in the outcome and that they exist within the wider discipline of music and thus share similar basic rules, the processes of application in both examples are diametrically opposed, that is to say that the same end effect can be achieved but the means to that end differ significantly. Whether or not a concert is considered to be sublimely beautiful, whether it is classical or rock, also depends upon the subjective opinion and indeed training and social conditioning of the listener. It is impossible to predict definitively how music will be experienced and therefore define how it should be delivered.

As with music most practical elements that can be rationalised thus far in architecture have been, for instance floors ‘should’ be horizontal and doorways tall enough for people to walk through, however despite the existence of these practical objective standards there are no defined, objective processes or definite truths regarding how these standards are to be articulated; with the result that a doorway can be expressed in any way conceivable so long as it fulfills its functional purpose. Therefore different, subjectively developed discourses and approaches exist within architecture as they do within the discipline of music, each of which attempt ,in their own way, to produce a suitable and justifiable solution to the already rationalised and established pragmatic standards; whether these are doorways or musical notes.