So this one time..

I was listening to The Firebird (L’oiseau De Feu) by Igor Stravinsky.

Stranvinsky was the son of Russia’s leading opera singers. This particular composition caused a sensation and gave him international recognition.

The composers used ‘chromatic scales and harmonies’ to represent ‘supernatural forces and folk melodies to represent human characters’. The use of Cello, basses and bass drum give this composition its natural feeling tell the Russian tale of Koschei the Deathless

(Source: https://houstonsymphony.org/stravinsky-firebird-complete/)

What is Sound?

• Wikipedia says that in scientific term, specifically in physics, that sound is a vibration that travels as acoustic wave through a matter or medium.
• For my understanding, to put this in my words, sound can be described as a disturbance caused in a space, particles vibrating in air and traveling in different directions. These ‘disturbances’ or sound waves, are then felt by our ‘eardrums’ and sometimes even in our body, for example at a concert. This fairly shows the material nature of sound and music.

What is Music?

• Merriam-Webster defines music as a ‘vocal, instrumental or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody or harmony.
• Based on that, I would like to describe music as a pleasant composition of different types of sounds. These different sounds can originate from different musical instruments, vocal cords of singers, digitally created music, physical events like winds, rains, lightning, car and train sounds, audience etc.

What is further interesting is how the complexity of these sounds can be pleasing or not pleasing, but these sounds can still be part of a big picture. The sound of lightning can be scary in most situations, but if it is used with other sounds like fans cheering and sounds of engines of racing cars, it turns the mood into something exciting. 

Although these elements can sound related to some very specific events, what I am curious about is how overlapping certain sounds in certain quantities can tell a story or create an experience. I feel its about the proportions. It feels very similar to a poster design or magazine design and even cooking.

I would also like to study the concert posters by Josef Muller-Brockmann.

• Josef Muller-Brockmann is one of the most renowned Swiss designers. He has had a huge influence on modernist graphic design style.
• He is very well known for using simple shapes and lines to create simple and clean designs and his principles and design language is still followed by many designers even today.

During his career, he created many concert posters for Tonhalle concert hall in Zurich.

• This series was known as ‘Musica Viva’. This series focused a lot on the feelings of the music. He used scientific and mathematical methods to work on these posters so as to stay true to the musicians and their compositions.

I would like to study some of his concert posters below:

A. Josef Muller-Brockmann, Strawinsky, Berg, Fortner -Tonhalle, 1955

Initial Observations:

• I see a lot of lines of different thickness crossing at one particular place on the poster.
• The lines probably indicate different sounds from different musical instruments.
• As Josef liked to work using mathematical methods, I believe, these lines are mathematically structured to represent a certain composition from that particular concert.

Study:

• What I like about this particular poster is its proportions and also the balance it strikes between the blue background and the white texts and white lines.
• I believe the blue colour plays an important role as well, most probably representing the mood of the music composed by Strawinsky, Berg and Fortner.
• All the elements are rotated by 30degrees, and this gives the poster its necessary dynamism.
• The typeface is used in 3 different sizes, in order of their importance.

• The angle, position and the overlapping of the elements create a sense of ‘musical breath.’

B. Josef Muller-Brockmann, Clara Haskil Tonhalle-1954

• This poster for me shows how some lines can create visual friction, which feels like a very physical and materialistic quality.
• This friction and even the overlapping is an important part of music. The overlapping for sounds from different instruments makes a great composition. Even if there is just one musical instrument, there is still the overlapping of musical notes.
• Clara Haskil was a classical pianist, so it is interesting to see this poster from that perspective as well.
• The overlapping of musical notes is very similar to overlapping or overlaying in visual design.
• The blank space around the overlapping lines and the text, gives a visual breathing space, which is again very similar to musical composition, as music compositions also contain the silent bits to balance the compositions.
• The san-serif typeface here is used in two different sizes which carefully balances all the elements.

C. Josef Muller-Brockmann, Musica Viva-Tonhalle Zurich-1958

• Joseph Muller-Brockmann believed in rational, functional design. To achieve that, he used geometry, photography and abstraction.
• The handling of the elements involves type, shape, spatial relations, rhythmic proportions and colour function through a systematic employment of the grid.
• The poster uses the language of Constructivism to create a visual correlative to the structural harmonies of the music.
• He is best known for his simple designs and clean use of typography.
• He always aspired to attain a distinct arrangement of typographic and pictorial elements.
• He was of the view that the unconscious is part of the support structure of his work.
• In his work, he aspired to communicate information about idea, event or product as vividly as possible.
• His work is not intended to make a timeless statement but rather to invite his audience to form their opinion on the subject.
• This movement of constructive design embraced a defined arrangement of the pictorial and typographic elements.
• Using the grid as an organisational tool, harmony between images and type was achieved, resulting in unified composition.
• In History of the Poster, Josef describes the Constrictive poster being composed of, “..linear and proportional correlations between all parts, each is integrated in the whole, and the result is the optimum arrangement for the task.”
• The poster looks very mathematically designed, the big white square in the centre is located on a gray background.
• The white space (or negative space) feels like the ‘silence’ which is again a part of music composition.
• The small red, black, yellow and blue squares in that white space feel like different types of sound, from probably different types of musical instruments.
• The distance between the squares is mathematically calculated, based on the music played at that concert.

• This poster for me shows how some lines can create visual friction, which feels like a very physical and materialistic quality.
• This friction and even the overlapping is an important part of music. The overlapping for sounds from different instruments makes a great composition. Even if there is just one musical instrument, there is still the overlapping of musical notes.
• Clara Haskil was a classical pianist, so it is interesting to see this poster from that perspective as well.
• The overlapping of musical notes is very similar to overlapping or overlaying in visual design.
• The blank space around the overlapping lines and the text, gives a visual breathing space, which is again very similar to musical composition, as music compositions also contain the silent bits to balance the compositions.
• The san-serif typeface here is used in two different sizes which carefully balances all the elements.

 (reference: https://ilovetypography.com/2013/01/12/a-firm-turn-toward-the-objective-josef-muller-brockmann-1948-1981/)

CONCLUSION:

• Josef Muller-Brockmann talked in his book how, ‘music and arts are sisters of mathematics based on mathematical laws.
• It is evident from his posters how this approach can be used to communicate the feeling and type of music, the concert might be based upon.
• I think its fair to say that we humans are sensitive to certain beats and tunes in nature and somehow consciously and even subconsciously appreciate the harmony and patterns we might feel or see in our surroundings.
• There are many similarities between the properties that define musical composition and visual/graphic composition.