A Palladian Prelude
(in C Major)

Architecture as Frozen Music

The Commission:
This one is complicated!  This is a folding screen that celebrates the Architecture of Palladio, the Music of J.S. Bach, and a rather interesting mathematical challenge my patron was delighted to share with me...

Just above: The screen in its final placement in front of the window in his bedroom....

A detail of one of the shells... This picture shows how much what is behind a stained glass window can influence your experience of it...  Compare this picture to the one just above it.   This particular shell is the one on the far left...

A detail of one of the cattle skulls that are ubiquitous in the Doric Order.  They are called "bucrania..."

Above you can see the music of Bach's Prelude in C Major..,  The part  showing in the upper picture is the forth measure...  In the lower picture above, you can see the central two panels flattened to face you.  They show measures 2 and 3...

I printed a booklet that has most of the reference drawings and sources and gave it to my patron.  If you are the kind of person who likes to read the back of cereal boxes, there is another page with a much more complete description...  to read it, click on  this link...

Another view of the screen under different lighting...