Garden Inspired by the Music of Bach

A few years ago, Yo-Yo Ma created in collaboration with a number of artists and filmmakers a 6-part film series Inspired by Bach, which explored the visual and spatial quality of Bach's suites for unaccompanied cello.

In Part 1, Ma worked with garden designer Julie Moir Messervy to create a garden in Boston, inspired by the First Suite. The plan fell through due to the lack of commercial financial support. Toronto then showed an interest in the project. The film, directed by Kevin McMahon, ended some time in 1997 when private donors were secured and construction work was ready to start.

Viewers must have felt frustrated, because the film simply ended when it reached production deadline, instead documenting the development of the project to the very end. I am sure I was not the only one who demanded to know: "what happened then?"
 

What happened was, the Music Garden was opened in June 1999, as part of the City of Toronto Harbourfront Parks System!

There is a slide show of the Music Garden in Julie Moir Messervy's official site.

Some Thoughts on the Music Garden

The Inspired by Bach project was a great idea. And the wild thought of creating a garden out of a musical piece was particularly interesting. For, unlike the other 5 parts, what left after the conclusion of the project was not just the films and the memories, but a garden which is tangible and will last for a long long time.

But what does it mean to be "inspired"? Certainly, one can design a garden inspired by some other things, like, a piece of Bach music. But how does this inspiration show up in the garden?

Yo-Yo Ma said in the film and other interviews that the First Suite reminded him of nature, something to do with trees and water as opposed to something that is human and that he would like to create a space for music without walls. (see interviews of Ma by Toronto Star in 1997 and CBC in 1999)

I think the more exact description of this project is a garden created/constructed to realise visually and spatially Bach's First Suite, hence the design that each section in the garden corresponds to a different movement of the suite.

Since I haven't visited the Music Garden yet, I shall defer my judgement on this project to a later day.

What Others Think of This Project?

I shall try, from time to time, to search for critiques of the Music Garden available on the Net.

Music Garden in Toronto (Lorraine Hunter, Garden-Time.com, 3/9/03)

Music Garden (Plant Journal - Gayla, 12/9/02)

Toronto Music Garden Photo Gallery (Yoshiyuki Nakagawa, 27/5/01)

Thanks to Collaborative Effort New Yo-Yo Ma Music Garden Opens to Public (Rosalind Reed, Weedpatch.com, Winter 2001)

Allemande Music Garden in Toronto, Lorraine Johnson (CBC Canadian Gardener, 11/1999)

Bach Minuett (Martin Tai, 9/9/1999)

The Sweet Sights and Sounds of Toronto's Music Garden (Wes Porter, Hort-Pro On-line Magazine, 31/8/1999)

Cover story (Allan Pulker, WholeNote, 6/1999)

Toronto Music Garden (Feir Mill Design)

Bach Builds a House

Interestingly, I have a book (in Chinese) of the title Bach Builds a House, co-authored by an architect/academic and a musician. The subtitle of the book, which was published in Taiwan in June 2000, is a conversation between architecture and music. It deals with the inter-relationship between architecture and music. More specifically, it tries to find the common creative background and source for these two art forms.

The book has a chapter on "Bach and Gothic churches". The authors claim that the structure and nature of Bach's music have a very close relationship to the architectural structure and spatial form of Gothic churches. Given that the so-called Gothic period ended around 200 years before Bach's birth, can we say that (at least some of) Bach's music was inspired by Gothic architecture?

The chapter does not discuss whether any form of architecture has been inspired by Bach's music, nor does it mention the Ma-Messervy project. The book, however, has another chapter on "Improvisation and Variation", which compares Jacques Loussier's "Play Bach" approach to post-modernism architecture.

Last updated: 27 November 2003. Maintained by Joseph Tsang 曾錫堯