CREATING A PROCESS FOR INTERPRETING MUSIC AND SPACE

BY ERICA PERINE | Elizabeth Gamard Memorial Travel Fellowship

From May 17-31, 2018, I walked around Vienna’s historic Innere Stadt and sometimes outside of it, visiting the city’s greatest architectural and urban planning masterpieces.

But their significance goes beyond the spatial: Beethoven composed his 6th Symphony in his suburban Heilegenstadt apartment, one of about 70 places in Vienna that he lived; Johann Strauss II’s famous waltz “The Blue Danube” pays ode to the great river running through the city’s northeast. Schubert spent his entire life in Vienna. Brahms is buried, along with Beethoven and Mozart, in the city’s cemeteries. Austria’s capital might be the most musically significant city in the world.

I have selected my favorite locations from the two-week trip and produced synesthetic graphic scores depicting my experience as I traversed through each space. I have paired each space with a piece of classical music from the same era, and created a second set of graphic scores relaying my experience listening to these. The result is a juxtaposition. My goal is to begin to understand how these interpretations occurred. If architecture relies on a process, then so must music. How do these processes compare?

I owe many thanks to the following:

Elizabeth Gamard and her friends and colleagues

Jennifer Gaugler and Simcha Ward

Tulane School of Architecture

Scott Bernhard

Emily Parsons

Sarah Gamard

All who attended my lecture

Mom and Dad