Space as a musical challenge, up for debate in the Rehearsal Room

Is there an ideal place for music? In Rehearsal Room, Juan de la Rubia, musician and titular organist of the Sagrada Familia Basilica, and Benedetta Tagliabue, architect and designer of auditoriums and concert halls, among other projects, discuss how walls create spaces that allow us to listen to music. The work of Johann Sebastian Bach, Passacaglia and Fugue in C Minor 582A cathedral-like work for organ accompanies the debate in the video podcast of the Palau de la Música Catalana: An ideal place for music

The Palau, an architectural jewel and the quintessential home of music, is the starting point of the conversation. What music does it evoke? For Benedetta Tagliabue, "it's more the music of the architecture than a specific piece I've heard here, although often listening to the music puts you in a state of bliss that accompanies you, but always with the beauty that surrounds you. This is the great difference of the Palau." Inevitably, the walls of the Palau envelop you, and that "makes the music change as well, and surely we feel it differently, because ultimately everything blends together," says Juan de la Rubia, who describes the Palau as a unique music hall in the world.

The Palau de la Música was built as the headquarters for the Orfeó Català, more than a hundred years ago. Lluís Domènech i Montaner applied all his architectural knowledge, following the Modernista style, and taking into account all the acoustic complexity. Benedetta Tagliabue speaks of this difficulty from her own experience. "In China, we're designing a complete auditorium and conservatory, with three concert halls: one for opera, another for concerts, and the third for more contemporary music, and the whole acoustic aspect is very complicated, almost a mystery."

Juan de la Rubia corroborates this from an organist's perspective. "It's a crucial issue because, in the case of organs, they aren't only found in auditoriums; in fact, they're mostly found in churches, in cathedrals with acoustics that probably weren't primarily designed for music." Like in the Sagrada Família, where the acoustics are so reverberant. The challenge, therefore, is also the instrument itself, and for the musicians, their own acoustic comfort.

Music and architecture, two sister disciplines

For Tagliabue, the Palau is an "absolutely unique and wonderful" building. Juan de la Rubia shares this view from an acoustic perspective, despite acknowledging some exceptions. Given that "each type of music has its own acoustics," the organist asserts that the performer must always adapt to the hall's conditions. "You have to be a chameleon," he states, and adjust your repertoire to each space.

From a construction standpoint, Benedetta Tagliabue admits that, as architects, "it's true that we think more about those who come to listen than those who make music. But we always design places that are special, that generate emotion, and that's achieved through forms and colors," without exception. The beauty of the space, she says, must coexist harmoniously with the music, as the Renaissance artists did, "madly" studying the golden ratio as a link between the two arts. Saint Augustine, Juan de la Rubia points out, also spoke of "architecture and music as sister disciplines." However, it's important to remember that every organ is different, and so is every building, concert hall, or church. "An organ is an instrument that often becomes part of the architecture, integrated into the design of the hall, or embedded in the concert hall in some way. It's not an instrument you can simply remove like a piano and put back; I imagine architects take it very much into account when designing the halls," De la Rubia notes. In Shenzhen, where Tagliabue is building the conservatory, he is also designing an organ. "It's exciting, and the organ builder is giving us a great deal of freedom. It's not just a wonderful instrument; we want it to be beautiful as well." As De la Rubia says, "the pipes you see are the facade because the acoustics are actually inside," and the first thing it must do "is captivate you visually." "Gerhard Grenzing, a German organist who has lived in Catalonia for many years, says that an organ should first knock you off your feet when you see it and then when you feel it. And if that's the case, it's a good instrument," he adds.

Barcelona, ​​a city of music

Architecturally speaking, Barcelona is indeed a city with a strong musical tradition. From the construction of the Palau de la Música for the Orfeó Català, through the Liceu, marked by Wagnerian passion, to Montserrat and its Escolania (choir school), "I've always felt that Barcelona is a very musical place," says Benedetta Tagliabue. Juan de la Rubia shares this view. "As a Valencian, I felt welcomed in Barcelona precisely because of this diversity and because of the Palau de la Música," he states, emphasizing the fundamental role of the Palau's Choral School in artistic development from childhood, "without the need for any instruments, but only with singing."

If music needs an ideal setting, it seems clear that the best place to hear it is within the four walls of the hall designed by architects and inhabited by musicians. "I think music has immense dignity, and keeping it in the background, as something that accompanies you in the background, is abusing something so noble," explains Tagliabue. "Music is a collective act, and going to a concert is fantastic for the soul, and we should cultivate it," summarizes Juan de la Rubia.