The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and PoliticsVarious
History
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 12, No. 73, November, 1863: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
As we return to the impression produced by the grand _facade_, we are
more and more struck with the subtile art displayed in its adaptations
and symbolisms. Never did any structure we have looked upon so fully
justify Madame de Stael's definition of architecture, as "frozen music."
The outermost towers, their pillars and domes, are all _square_, their
outlines thus passing without too sudden transitions from the sharp
square angles of the vaulted ceiling and the rectangular lines of the
walls of the hall itself into the more central parts of the instrument,
where a smoother harmony of outline is predominant. For in the great
towers, which step forward, as it were, to represent the meaning of the
entire structure, the lines are all curved, as if the slight discords
which gave sharpness and variety to its less vital portions were all
resolved as we approached its throbbing heart. And again, the half
fantastic repetitions of musical forms in the principal outlines--the
lyre-like shape of the bases of the great towers, the harp-like figure
of the connecting wings, the clustering reeds of the columns--fill the
mind with musical suggestions, and dispose the wondering spectator to
become the entranced listener.
The great organ would be but half known, if it were not played in a
place fitted for it in dimensions. In the open air the sound would be
diluted and lost; in an ordinary hall the atmosphere would be churned
into a mere tumult by the vibrations. The Boston Music Hall is of ample
size to give play to the waves of sound, yet not so large that its space
will not be filled and saturated with the overflowing resonance. It is
one hundred and thirty feet in length by seventy-eight in breadth and
sixty-five in height, being thus of somewhat greater dimensions than the
celebrated Town Hall of Birmingham. At the time of building it, (1852,)
its great height was ordered partly with reference to the future
possibility of its being furnished with a large organ. It will be
observed that the three dimensions above given are all multiples of the
same number, thirteen, the length being ten times, the breadth six times
and the height five times this number. This is in accordance with Mr.
Scott Russell's recommendation, and has been explained by the fact that
vibrating solids divide into _harmonic lengths_, separated by _nodal
points_ of rest, and that these last are equally distributed at aliquot
parts of its whole length. If the whole extent of the walls be in
vibration, its angles should come in at the nodal points in order to
avoid the confusion arising from different vibrating lengths; and for
this reason they are placed at aliquot parts of its entire length. Thus
the hall is itself a kind of passive musical instrument, or at least a
sounding-board, constructed on theoretical principles. Whatever is
thought of the theory, it proves in practice to possess the excellence
which is liable to be lost in the construction of the best-designed
edifice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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