Music and Architecture: An Eye-Opening Course
When looking through the list of honors seminars for the fall semester, “Music and Architecture: Correlation and Comparison” immediately jumped out at me. Just the title alone had me instantly curious about the subject matter and how those two seemingly opposite fields could possibly relate. The decision to take this course for my first honors experience was a great one, and I now look back to that experience as incredibly fulfilling and rewarding.
Before the semester even began, I was already very excited to meet the professor, Dr. Terrence Milligan, because he was a previous director of the Bearcat Marching Band, which I had just become a part of. This sounds silly, but I was also thrilled to meet him because he had wonderful reviews on “Rate My Professor,” with feedback about his enthusiasm and warm personality, which couldn’t have been more accurate. Dr. Milligan clearly demonstrated his excitement to be teaching the course (one, in addition, that is not offered anywhere else) through his spirited nature, and he was welcoming and eager to dive into the material.
The first topic we covered, “Music as Fluid Architecture and Architecture as Frozen Music,” had me instantly hooked to the course and made me eager to return for the next class and continue discussion. If you are anything like me, you are probably wondering just how music and architecture relate (my exact thoughts going into the course) but that first discussion made it so clear. The same qualities go into the creation of both: a plan of design by the creator, structure, balance, consideration of the viewer/listener’s emotional response, and countless others. Looking back, the idea of architecture as frozen music was most powerful to me.
An example of how this was demonstrated to me was our trip to the Union Terminal. Dr. Milligan designed the course in such a way to incorporate the viewing of outstanding architecture in the Cincinnati area as supplemental, hands-on instruction (a part of the course which I enjoyed significantly more than I first expected). The Union Terminal was impossibly beautiful, containing brilliant mosaics depicting the history of Cincinnati, and I could see a sense of music through the building. It has an easy flow throughout the structure, perfectly designed for musical performances, and even contained pipe organs. The power of the music literally shook the building and almost brought me to tears. That emotion from its beauty and power made it easy for me to see the “frozen” music in its architecture and get a great grasp for what Dr. Milligan was trying to get us to understand from his course.
As a long-time musician, I had a good feeling that this course would be a good fit for me. I originally went in thinking that because the professor was a musician, the course would be tailored to music, and that I would just have to “get through” the architecture portion. Although I did thoroughly enjoy the music portion of the course, this negative attitude towards the architecture aspect of the course was completely wrong. Throughout the semester, we did an activity using intricate building block sets to design a structure to fit a particular theme, which ended up being very interesting and exciting for me. Not only through this activity, but also through our trips to see works of amazing architecture, I got to take a step back from my strictly engineering/science/math curriculum and be pushed a little bit out of my comfort zone to broaden my horizons and interests.
For any other honors student wondering which honors seminar to take in the fall, I highly would recommend “Music and Architecture: Correlation and Comparison” without any hesitation. The course, although being held in CCM, comprised of students from every single college at UC and seemed to have a positive effect for all involved. Musician or non-musician, design major or business major, male or female student, or whatever category the student may fit into, this course was exceptionally designed, clearly meeting the standards of the University of Cincinnati Honors Program, meaning there was much room for personal development and reflection. This experience far exceeded my expectation of not enjoying the architecture portion and just going for the musical component by changing my view on the subject and exposing me to a subject that I may have never considered. Looking forward, I would love to try to take another course with Dr. Milligan or at least another elective relating to music and/or architecture to be part of a better-developed curriculum for my education at UC.
Below are three images that I have chosen to best represent this course. Left, is a photo from our trip to the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. The photo depicts a portion of an exhibit featuring the controversial photograph of JR, entitled "Women Are Heroes, Too." That particular showcase from JR showed women from poor areas making silly faces to the camera, aiming to shine light on a different aspect of these women's personalities. The middle picture shows my class, friends I most likely never would have encountered otherwise, in the children's area of the Contemporary Arts Center (possibly one of the most fun parts of that trip). College students are really just kids at heart! The final picture (right) shows just one example of the building block activity I had described earlier. The theme of this design was "grandeur." These three pictures just barely cover the extent of what we did during the course and how fortunate I am to have had that experience.
Please see my link below the pictures to read one of my essay papers from the course! (Artifact) The topic of the paper (the essay topics were 100% up to the students, by the way) was "The Architecture of Musical Instruments." Enjoy!
Before the semester even began, I was already very excited to meet the professor, Dr. Terrence Milligan, because he was a previous director of the Bearcat Marching Band, which I had just become a part of. This sounds silly, but I was also thrilled to meet him because he had wonderful reviews on “Rate My Professor,” with feedback about his enthusiasm and warm personality, which couldn’t have been more accurate. Dr. Milligan clearly demonstrated his excitement to be teaching the course (one, in addition, that is not offered anywhere else) through his spirited nature, and he was welcoming and eager to dive into the material.
The first topic we covered, “Music as Fluid Architecture and Architecture as Frozen Music,” had me instantly hooked to the course and made me eager to return for the next class and continue discussion. If you are anything like me, you are probably wondering just how music and architecture relate (my exact thoughts going into the course) but that first discussion made it so clear. The same qualities go into the creation of both: a plan of design by the creator, structure, balance, consideration of the viewer/listener’s emotional response, and countless others. Looking back, the idea of architecture as frozen music was most powerful to me.
An example of how this was demonstrated to me was our trip to the Union Terminal. Dr. Milligan designed the course in such a way to incorporate the viewing of outstanding architecture in the Cincinnati area as supplemental, hands-on instruction (a part of the course which I enjoyed significantly more than I first expected). The Union Terminal was impossibly beautiful, containing brilliant mosaics depicting the history of Cincinnati, and I could see a sense of music through the building. It has an easy flow throughout the structure, perfectly designed for musical performances, and even contained pipe organs. The power of the music literally shook the building and almost brought me to tears. That emotion from its beauty and power made it easy for me to see the “frozen” music in its architecture and get a great grasp for what Dr. Milligan was trying to get us to understand from his course.
As a long-time musician, I had a good feeling that this course would be a good fit for me. I originally went in thinking that because the professor was a musician, the course would be tailored to music, and that I would just have to “get through” the architecture portion. Although I did thoroughly enjoy the music portion of the course, this negative attitude towards the architecture aspect of the course was completely wrong. Throughout the semester, we did an activity using intricate building block sets to design a structure to fit a particular theme, which ended up being very interesting and exciting for me. Not only through this activity, but also through our trips to see works of amazing architecture, I got to take a step back from my strictly engineering/science/math curriculum and be pushed a little bit out of my comfort zone to broaden my horizons and interests.
For any other honors student wondering which honors seminar to take in the fall, I highly would recommend “Music and Architecture: Correlation and Comparison” without any hesitation. The course, although being held in CCM, comprised of students from every single college at UC and seemed to have a positive effect for all involved. Musician or non-musician, design major or business major, male or female student, or whatever category the student may fit into, this course was exceptionally designed, clearly meeting the standards of the University of Cincinnati Honors Program, meaning there was much room for personal development and reflection. This experience far exceeded my expectation of not enjoying the architecture portion and just going for the musical component by changing my view on the subject and exposing me to a subject that I may have never considered. Looking forward, I would love to try to take another course with Dr. Milligan or at least another elective relating to music and/or architecture to be part of a better-developed curriculum for my education at UC.
Below are three images that I have chosen to best represent this course. Left, is a photo from our trip to the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center. The photo depicts a portion of an exhibit featuring the controversial photograph of JR, entitled "Women Are Heroes, Too." That particular showcase from JR showed women from poor areas making silly faces to the camera, aiming to shine light on a different aspect of these women's personalities. The middle picture shows my class, friends I most likely never would have encountered otherwise, in the children's area of the Contemporary Arts Center (possibly one of the most fun parts of that trip). College students are really just kids at heart! The final picture (right) shows just one example of the building block activity I had described earlier. The theme of this design was "grandeur." These three pictures just barely cover the extent of what we did during the course and how fortunate I am to have had that experience.
Please see my link below the pictures to read one of my essay papers from the course! (Artifact) The topic of the paper (the essay topics were 100% up to the students, by the way) was "The Architecture of Musical Instruments." Enjoy!
essay2_lengel.docx | |
File Size: | 19 kb |
File Type: | docx |