The Beautiful Necessity: Seven Essays on Theosophy and ArchitectureBragdon, Claude Fayette
Philosophy
The Beautiful Necessity: Seven Essays on Theosophy and Architecture
Bragdon, Claude Fayette
Architecture; Theosophy
4 9 2 = 15
3 5 7 = 15
8 1 6 = 15
-- -- --
15 15 15
Its beauty is portrayed geometrically in the accompanying figure which
expresses it, being 15 triangles in three groups of 5 (Illustration
86). Few arrangements of openings in a façade better satisfy the eye
than three superimposed groups of five (Illustrations 76-80). May not
one source of this satisfaction dwell in the intrinsic beauty of the
number 15?
In conclusion, it is perhaps well that the reader be again reminded
that these are the by-ways, and not the highways of architecture: that
the highest beauty comes always, not from beautiful numbers, nor
from likenesses to Nature's eternal patterns of the world, but from
utility, fitness, economy, and the perfect adaptation of means to
ends. But along with this truth there goes another: that in every
excellent work of architecture, in addition to its obvious and
individual beauty, there dwells an esoteric and universal beauty,
following as it does the archetypal pattern laid down by the Great
Architect for the building of that temple which is the world wherein
we dwell.
VII
FROZEN MUSIC
In the series of essays of which this is the final one, the author has
undertaken to enforce the truth that evolution on any plane and on
any scale proceeds according to certain laws which are in reality only
ramifications of one ubiquitous and ever operative law; that this law
registers itself in the thing evolved, leaving stamped thereon as it
were fossil footprints by means of which it may be known. In the arts
the creative spirit of man is at its freest and finest, and nowhere
among the arts is it so free and so fine as in music. In music
accordingly the universal law of becoming finds instant, direct
and perfect self-expression; music voices the inner nature of the
_will-to-live_ in all its moods and moments; in it form, content,
means and end are perfectly fused. It is this fact which gives
validity to the before quoted saying that all of the arts "aspire
toward the condition of music." All aspire to express the law, but
music, being least encumbered by the leaden burden of materiality,
expresses it most easily and adequately. This being so there is
nothing unreasonable in attempting to apply the known facts of musical
harmony and rhythm to any other art, and since these essays concern
themselves primarily with architecture, the final aspect in which
that art will be presented here is as "frozen music"--ponderable form
governed by musical law.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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