Citirama: where the patterns of architecture join the rhythms of music Original

Citirama is an experimental performance where the patterns of architecture join the rhythms of music in mutual celebration. The inspiration for creating this piece of Visual Music was one particular building in the City of London - the Leadenhall Bulding, colloquially known as ‘the Cheesegrater’. I knew from my first visit onwards that its very individual form of visual expression would offer a rich source of pattern-making material. This is because the Cheesegrater makes its mark by revealing structure, services and circulation routes on the outside. The workings of the building are not hidden but, instead, they become the means of expressing its nature and function. It invites people inside rather than presenting a closed façade to the world. So what are the patterns manifest in the Cheesegrater? I think, first and foremost, what I’ve found is a series of leitmotifs. (I’m making use of the musical connotations of this term quite deliberately.) Sometimes these are small details and at other times they are whole elevations or complete spaces. But always they serve to capture a design language that produces architecture of exceptional quality. My experimental performance requires not only an ordering of images derived from the Cheesegrater’s leitmotifs but, also, a complementary ordering of movement derived from the rhythms of a musical counterpart. I’ve found this in Richard Rodney Bennett’s Sonatina for Solo Clarinet. The constantly changing rhythmic patterns of the Sonatina’s three movements have led to me producing a piece of Visual Music that demonstrates a close interchange between architecture and music. It’s a two-way process whereby, in my performance on solo clarinet, I take delight in joining the patterns of architecture with the rhythms of music and, conversely, joining the rhythms of music with the patterns of architecture. The visual and aural elements of my performance have equal importance. My realisation of the first movement introduces a set of repeat patterns, all derived from my leitmotifs. Each pattern is continually changing and evolving. And its in this form that I project my patterns on to the slanting façade of the Cheesegrater. If this sort of display was to happen in reality, it would be the largest light show in town – if not the world. What a sight that would be. But, for the present, at least, it must remain a computer simulation. In the second movement, I create a series of reverse explosions; fragmented components of my leitmotifs gradually come together or spin apart to reveal the architectural elements from which they’re derived. In the last movement, I confound the eye with a series of quick-change collages. It’s the most rhythmic of my three movements with each collage revealing a different arrangement of my leitmotifs. In Citirama, I’ve produced an ordering of images that has taken flight into a realm of fantasy. I see it as an experimental piece of Visual Music that has begun to reveal a new type of relationship between music and architecture – no longer frozen but, instead, constantly moving and inventive.