Form in Architecture and Music

At a time when technology has unleashed architects to design the most extravagant tangible forms, could questioning the concept of form in an abstract medium like music, which lies in the territory of idea, and incorporating its ephemeral qualities into the spatial realm lead to a reconsideration of architectural form?

Isben Önen's insightful book offers a new view of the relationship between the histories of Western music and architecture. It demonstrates both the profound overlaps and divergences between the two fields, presenting a wide-ranging understanding of the development of each field. This is cultural history at its best: richly informative and deeply engaging. (Christopher Long)

Throughout history there has been a constant fascination of architects with music. Isben Önen, an architect and a musician himself, sets out explore the formal correspondence between his two fields of expertise, from Vitruvius to Leon Battista Alberti; from Gabrieli through the enlightenment, to Alban Berg and all the way to Renzo Piano's and Luigi Nono's contemporary Prometeo. This uncommonly vast and profound piece of scholarship is of interest not only to musicians and architects but also the non-specialized public.
(Liane Lefaivre)