*Architecture and Music

I thought this was quite interesting. Byrne's thesis is that the music is composed for certain structures. But there is a lot more going on when he's talking about architecture and structure. He mentions the acoustics of a space but he also includes the social atmosphere - people talking to each other, yelling at the band: "play that again," or factors like staying quiet. He's pointing at social etiquette in the event of a band and so on. So architecture, in the sense that Byrne is talking about it, is not simply the space and the structure of the building but social structures like etiquette and ethos in a venue.

The shift is made with the advent of the microphone and the radio. These devices have allowed the venue to be, literally, headphones. In this sense, ear buds become an architectural structure. And as a result, most of the music today, Byrne suggests is made as headphone music.

But I wonder if this is what composers and musicians have in mind when they compose. I have no idea. Do they anticipate where they're going to play when they write music? Do they anticipate the kind of acoustics of a space that they are going to encounter when they begin writing a song? The phrase "it fits perfectly" seems quite relative and in hindsight bias. Only in retrospect do they seem to fit. I think he does have a point though that the moods that the space dictates can enhance the mood of the music. For church choirs, in a way, they already know that they are going to be singing in a church. This is obvious as that is the social space that is appropriated for them. I'm curious, however, whether the acoustics of a space dictate the composition of a song. This would mean that the the structure of a church dictates the structure of an organ composition or how the choir will sing. Oddly, any of these genre of songs still work quite well in headphones. And any of these genres of songs work quite well in the car - not just the heavy bass of hip hop. As those who ride in cars that bump, you don't really hear too much of the mc and even at venues the bass will override the vocals. I think the idea becomes problematic when you start nitpicking at the components and whether they "fit perfectly" and when we begin asking how musicians compose their music - if they have a particular kind of space in mind. Nonetheless, the idea of architecture and ethos dictating the structure of compositions is an interesting and titillating idea.