The Center for American Architecture and Design and The Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music at The University of Texas at Austin are proud to announce the 2011 Music in Architecture - Architecture in Music Design and Composition Competition (hereinafter “the Competition”) to be held in conjunction with the Music in Architecture - Architecture in Music Symposium (hereinafter “the Symposium’) to be held October 19-22, 2011.
 

The purpose of the Competition is to encourage dialogue between musicians and architects world over, while offering students and professionals in these and related fields the opportunity to garner recognition for creative work that integrates their arts at the deepest levels.

Entrants may choose one of two modes of exploring the music and architecture relationship in the form of a performance:

Mode 1 (Music in Architecture): asks for proposals for the design of a temporary indoor or outdoor installation that will function as an acoustical performance space for an original piece of music to be composed and played by the composer and/or musicians as needed (musicians to be provided, if necessary, by the Butler School of Music). The idea is to bring out or challenge the acoustical, visual, functional, and/or conceptual properties of a particular space (listed below), transforming the experience of that space into one that showcases the synergy between music and architecture, and brings it into the public realm. Winners of Mode 1 Stage One—six to eight in number—will be required to construct and perform their pieces at the Symposium on October 19, 2011.

Mode 2 (Architecture in Music): Here composers are asked to propose music whose compositional basis is architectural in its origin or conceptual structure, and/or in the way it creates spaces/edifices in the listener’s mind, and/or how it avails itself of the several analogies between musical and architectural phenomena (e.g. rhythm, sequence, proportionality, texture, ascent/descent, emotional tonus, transparency, weight…). The architect in this collaboration is imagined to provide experience with, and insights into architecture’s long engagement with abstract representations of itself and its context. He or she may also provide a visual component to the proposal, e.g. video projection, stage effects. Winners of Mode 2 Stage One—six to eight in number—will be required to install and perform their pieces at the Symposium on October 20, 2011.

Some entrants to the Competition may wish to blend Modes 1 and 2. This is acceptable, and a challenge, but not necessary. In the event that a winning performance is a blend, judges will decide in which category to give the award. Judges will give no preference to any particular genre or style of music or architecture.