“Music is liquid architecture, architecture is frozen music.”

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

I’m sure you’ve heard it before. A famous quote comparing music and architecture.

Well, I hate it.

You might be like, Sarah, why? It is one of the most common sayings about the two disciplines. It’s so profound, it makes you think!

Yeah. I was mesmerized the first time I heard it, too. But here’s the thing:

It means nothing. It’s overdone.

It compares apples to oranges, when there are much deeper, historic, theoretical connections.

Music and architecture are more complex than that. There are more obvious parallels, and then there are the more abstract ones. But comparing them to two different states of matter is not the vibe.

Context Behind the Quote

There is still some debate about the source of the quote, but it is attributed to the German poet Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe. He supposedly said it in regard to his travels to Italy and experiencing the architecture there.

It makes sense upon seeing the great works of Baroque or Classical architecture, making this comparison, as these styles (in my mind at least) have a stronger relation to their musical counterparts.

So What’s Wrong with Calling Architecture Frozen Music?

During my research for my thesis project, I came across someone who shared my similar feelings about this quote. However, at this point, I couldn’t fully articulate why I disliked it. In the book Music, Space and Architecture, Maarten Kloos suggests in the Theme, “the relation between the two is a dynamic one, that should be considered in terms of fluidity and variability.”¹

I think the problem is calling architecture “frozen.” Why are we using such static language?

Architecture is Not Frozen Music:

Architecture should not be frozen. It may be frozen in the sense that it’s inanimate, but even that is not always the case. Kloos argues it should be fluid and dynamic. It should have a presence; that is what separates “architecture” from a “building.” It’s the art.

While architecture typically might not physically move, it has the power to move you. To push and pull you in and out of spaces. Deliberate lines, or shapes of spaces, can guide you along certain paths. Circulation, whether internal or external, suggests different potential paths. It simultaneously gives you a choice while making suggestions. Would a “frozen” art form do that?

And to look at it from the music side, is frozen music…just silence??

Of course, silence has its place in a musical composition, just as silence has its place in architecture. However, you can’t only have silence. You need additional sound to make the silence powerful and meaningful. Otherwise, it won’t be as impactful.

Contradictions in architecture, like light and dark, push and pull, and sound and silence, work together to create expressive works. Once again, it is the art part of architecture. But you can’t have one without the other to make a lasting impression.

There’s more to music and architecture:

The obvious:

Of course, there are the obvious parallels, like the similarities between language, histories, and pedagogical methods. In addition, the even more straightforward field of acoustics, which blends the science of sound within architectural spaces. These are the ideas people tend think of when comparing music and architecture.

Then, there’s the feelings you get when you enter a particular space, or the emotions a certain song can bring on. The expressiveness of the sculptural architectural element, or a musician physically moving to their own music.

The abstract/theoretical:

On the other hand, I believe the abstract and theoretical underlying connections between music and architecture are more compelling. Some ancient theories include Sacred Geometries (the idea that geometric forms and proportions have symbolic meanings and can be found in art and nature) and Music of the Spheres (also called musica universalis- the idea that there is a musical quality to the proportions and movements of the stars and planets).

In fact, many years ago (up until the Middle Ages), a liberal arts education in Western society grouped various subjects together: the trivium (the study of grammar, logic, and rhetoric) with the quadrivium (the study of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). Considering this idea, since geometry is a crucial aspect of architecture, could astronomy and mathematics serve as the connection between music and architecture?

Other Ways to Look at It:

A simpler way to approach music and architecture is to view space as the connection. Architecture creates space, and music fills it. Or you could look at it as music and architecture running in two different planes (or even dimensions?).

Architecture is how we decorate space; music is how we decorate time. (This quote is originally by Jean-Michel Basquiat, but about art, not architecture.) However, I think this is a better way to relate the two ideas than Goethe’s quote. Will I find this idea cringy in a few years? We’ll see, I guess.

So, what do you think? Do you like the quote “architecture is frozen music?” Or is there another music and architecture quote you prefer?

Sources:

1. pg 23. Kloos, Maarten, Machiel Spaan, and Klaas de Jong. Music, space and architecture. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Academy of Architecture: Architectura & Natura, 2012.