BENGALURU: Manifest, a dialogue to share artistic conversations around music and architecture with an idea to explore convergence and design was held in the city on Thursday, at Taj Vivanta, MG Road.
The dialogue witnessed prominent figures from the field of architecture and music featuring pianist Marialena Fernandes, architect Bijoy Ramachandran and former diplomat Nirupama Rao who brought forward the message of music and peace through her project The South Asian Symphony orchestra which commenced in 2019.
Speaking on the subject of architecture, Ramachandran’s talk focused on the works of late theoretician and architect Colin Rowe, where he compared previously designed structures of the individual and drew comparisons between the mathematical relations in architecture and music.
“In music there is a mathematical progression in how one finds consonance and dissonance amongst notes and chords. In the same manner, architects have been trying to find a mathematical basis to guide them with regards to proportion and scale.”
Ramachandran further elaborated, “The two buildings I have emphasized on–one from 1500s and another from the 20th century– where I look at how these architects are trying to do the same thing as musicians do to find the perfect balance in terms of proportion and scale. That’s the relationship between music and architecture.”
While Ramachandran enthralled the audience with his in-depth talk which drew parallels between the two fields, Vienna-based pianist, Marialena Fernandes, resorted to entertaining the crowd with her renditions of Arnold Schoenberg and a improvised piece on Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Fur Elise.
Presented by ALF group and The KEITH Store, the evening headed to a close with former diplomat and foreign secretary, Nirupama Rao taking the dais to speak about The South Asian Symphony Orchestra, which she founded in 2018 along with her husband Sudhakar Rao.
Rao emphasized on the initiative which communicates the message of peace through music with musicians from across the South Asian diaspora with the most recent performance in Bengaluru in 2019. Speaking about the upcoming plans of the orchestra, Rao said,
“We are planning workshops for young musicians in order to provide them with exposure through masterclasses. This will not provide exposure to instruments but also in conducting, we are also bringing down Los Angeles-based pianist, Vijay Venkatesh who will perform for the foundation in December.”