Drawing conceptually and directly on music notation, this book investigates landscape architecture’s inherent temporality. It argues that the rich history of notating time in music provides a critical model for this under-researched and under-theorised aspect of landscape architecture, while also ennobling sound in the sensory appreciation of landscape.
A Musicology for Landscape makes available to a wider landscape architecture and urban design audience the works of three influential composers – Morton Feldman, György Ligeti and Michael Finnissy – presenting a critical evaluation of their work within music, as well as a means in which it might be used in design research. Each of the musical scores is juxtaposed with design representations by Kevin Appleyard, Bernard Tschumi and William Kent, before the author examines four landscape spaces through the development of new landscape architectural notations. In doing so, this work offers valuable insights into the methods used by landscape architects for the benefit of musicians, and by bringing together musical composition and landscape architecture through notation, it affords a focused and sensitive exploration of temporality and sound in both fields.
1. In an Open Field. Reflective Window. Made by Walking. Everything Under the Sky. The Deception of the Eye. Time Revealed, Time Concealed. Uncertain Precedents. The Time of Music. Creative Transcription. A Musicology for Landscape Architecture. 2. A Parallel History of Time in Music and Landscape. Music. Landscape. 3. Horizons. Morton Feldman. Space in the Development of Music Notation. Time Represented by Space. This Departing Landscape. ‘Realising’ Feldman. Sound and Shaped Time. Transcribing Manhattan. Sounds of the City. Notation of Space. 4. Clouds. György Ligeti. Sound on Paper. Dimensions of Time and Space. The View from the Road. A Cinematic Landscape. Lines Burnt in Light. The Time of Landscape. A Proximity to Notation. Notation of Time. 5. Meadows. Michael Finnissy. Melty Watercolours with Samuel Palmer Gloom on Top. Landscape Drawn Through Sound. Pink Elephants. Each Bird is Known by its Song. 655 Seconds of Antipodean Landscape. An Iconography of New Landscape Notations. 923 Above. Early Design Notation. Rousham’s History of Sound. Five Over Eleven. Ut Pictura Sonitu. Concluding the Picturesque. Notation of Material. 6. Busoni's Garden. Horizons, Clouds, Meadows. A New Relationship to Notation. Touching at a Distance. Sound Plus Vision. Notation as Landscape, Landscape as Notation. Busoni’s garden. Bibliography.
Biography
Dr David Nicholas Buck is founder of his eponymous design practice and is a landscape architect and educator with a special interest in the temporality of landscape. He has designed projects in Asia and the UK and has published widely on a range of design topics.
