Is Landscape Music?

Abstract

Landscape studies and design practices have traditionally concentrated on the visible and functional qualities of our environment, striving for beautification and enhanced ecological performance. Yet the act of reimagining and shaping our surroundings also determines how we hear our environment, what we listen to, and how we use sound as an artistic medium to create and perform music, a primal human instinct that allows us to express the most profound qualities of life. This article explores the intimate connections between landscape and music by considering their shared influence on one another, both metaphorically and physically. The discussion weaves together a variety of examples taken primarily from Western design and musical traditions of how landscape figuratively informs musical composition and ideation, how music and music‐making inform the design of landscapes, how music actually becomes landscape, and how landscape directly manifests as music. The discussion and its resulting conclusion that landscape is music are intended to provide a basis for future contemplation of the ways in which landscape design and music/sound art can benefit from continued dialog.