The Journal of Architecture

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Frank Lloyd Wright’s intuitive sound modernity

Jack Quinan

To cite this article: Jack Quinan (2018): Frank Lloyd Wright’s intuitive sound modernity, The
Journal of Architecture, DOI: 10.1080/13602365.2018.1505766

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2018.1505766

Published online: 17 Aug 2018.

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The Journal
of Architecture

Frank Lloyd Wright’s intuitive sound

modernity

Jack Quinan Visual Studies, Department of Art, University at

Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo,
New York, USA
(Author’s e-mail address: [email protected])

This essay examines Frank Lloyd Wright’s youthful immersion in classical music and his sub-
sequent five-year employment under Dankmar Adler of Adler & Sullivan as prelude to a
career in which Wright worked intuitively with the acoustics of theatres and other large
spaces for sound as well as domestic commissions, despite parallel developments in the
science of acoustics from Wallace Sabine to Vern O. Knudsen. The conclusion determines
that while Wright’s largest sound spaces, such as the 3,000-seat Grady Gammage Auditor-
ium, required the assistance of Knudsen, his domestic works were more successful acousti-
cally than those of the leading European modernists, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and
Walter Gropius.

Introduction House (figs 1a, 1b), a design that radically altered the
Whilst there is no question that Frank Lloyd Wright’s nature of American domestic architecture, inspired
work during the Prairie period manifested numerous modernist architects abroad and crystallised a
constituent elements of architectural modernism theory of organic architecture that served Wright
there has been no sustained examination of throughout his career.
Wright’s acoustics in relation to a notion of sound This essay will draw from Wright’s own writings,
modernity in domestic architecture, his primary recorded interviews and building designs to
field. Moreover, although he eventually realised examine his engagements with the sound of moder-
more than forty performance and religious spaces nity, revealing the depth of his youthful immersion in
over the course of his career, Wright remained music and the influence of Dankmar Adler’s intuitive
steadfastly dismissive of Wallace Sabine’s acoustical approach on Wright’s subsequent domestic archi-
science. tecture.
In her landmark study, The Soundscape of Moder-
nity: Architectural Acoustics and the Culture of Lis- Wright’s formative years
tening in America, 1900–1933, Emily Thompson Wright attributed much of his success in architecture
identifies Sabine’s pioneering work to correct the to his mother, Anna Wright, a school teacher who
excessive reverberation in the Fogg Art History doted on him, encouraged him to be an architect,2
lecture hall at Harvard University with the initiation instructed him in the Froebel Kindergarten
of the science of acoustics.1 Sabine’s work coincided method, and introduced him to literature and to
with the development of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie nature.3 His father, William Wright, was trained as

# 2018 RIBA Enterprises 1360-2365 https://doi.org/10.1080/13602365.2018.1505766

 2

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

Figure 1a. Plan, “A

Home in a Prairie
Town,” Ladies’ Home
Journal, (Feb. 1901,
p. 17), The Frank Lloyd
Wright Foundation
Archives (The Museum
of Modern Art | Avery
Architectural & Fine Arts
Library, Columbia
University, New York).

a lawyer but functioned variously and rather hap- Wright developed a particular fondness for the
lessly as a Baptist minister, music teacher, well-pub- music of Beethoven to whom he often compared
lished composer and occasional maker of violins. himself:5 ‘When I was a small child I used to lie
Wright’s account opens with his father playing a awake listening to the strains of the Sonata Pathé-
Bach piece on a church organ while his seven-year- tique—Father playing it on the Steinway square
old son labours at a bellows in a compartment downstairs in the Baptist minister’s house at Wey-
behind the organ crying in fear of failing his father mouth. … When I build I often hear music and,
as he tries to sustain the music. When the service yes, when Beethoven made music I am sure he
ends William Wright and his son walk home in sometimes saw buildings like mine in character,
silence to face the wrath of Mrs. Wright. The whatever form they may have taken then.’6
passage indicates that Wright came to know the William Wright transported his family across five
music of Bach viscerally: ‘Father sometimes played states in nine years from one Baptist congregation
piano far into the night, and much of Beethoven to another. By 1885 the family was living in
and Bach the boy [Wright] learned by heart as he Madison, Wisconsin, where Wright attended high
lay listening. Living seemed a kind of listening to school and briefly studied engineering at the Univer-
him—then’, and in these few lines—‘Father taught sity of Wisconsin. In 1887 he moved to Chicago
him to see a symphony as an edifice—of where, following a year in the office of J.L. Silsbee,
sound!’4—Wright challenges the predominance of he was hired by Adler and Sullivan to work on the
the visual in architecture with the auditory and indi- prestigious Chicago Auditorium Building. Within
cates that his first exposure to the idea of synthesis in three years Wright, aged 23, was made chief of
the arts was through musical composition. the firm’s thirty draftsmen.
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The Journal
of Architecture

Figure 1b. Elevation,

“A Home in a Prairie
Town,” Ladies’ Home
Journal, (Feb. 1901,
p. 17), The Frank Lloyd
Wright Foundation
Archives (The Museum
of Modern Art | Avery
Architectural & Fine Arts
Library, Columbia
University, New York).

Adler and Sullivan won the Auditorium commis- when I was with them. I knew acoustics, all that
sion in part on the strength of Dankmar Adler’s Dankmar Adler knew, and he was the master of
knowledge of acoustics which he had augmented acoustics in this country, recognised as such.’8
by an intensive two-month tour of thirteen theatres
and opera houses in five European countries.7 Developing an intuitive practice
Wright recalled: ‘I went to Adler & Sullivan during Wright left Adler & Sullivan in 1893 and estab-
the building of the Chicago Auditorium and did lished a successful domestic practice. Following
the finished drawings for it. Then came theater the publication of ‘A Home in a Prairie Town’ in
after theater. Adler & Sullivan built over thirty the Ladies’ Home Journal in 1901, his office
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Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

production accelerated to an average of ten to Park days and as his father had done in the
twelve Prairie houses per year and ten non-residen- 1880s.12 When he and Mrs Olgivanna Lloyd
tial commissions of various types and sizes up to Wright, an accomplished composer,13 formed the
1909. The latter presented a variety of acoustical Taliesin Fellowship in 1932, applicants were
and ambient sound conditions that required expected to be able to sing or play an instrument
various degrees of modulation, enhancement or in addition to their drafting abilities.14 This require-
refinement depending upon the building’s function ment led to the formation of the Taliesin orchestra
and location.9 The disparate nature of these com- and chorus, weekly musical evenings featuring the
missions suggests that Wright moved fluidly work of classical composers and summer residencies
between domestic and non-domestic realms while for ensembles of musicians from Madison, Chicago
maintaining a consistent concern with acoustics in and New York. Wright even had speakers
the home, an intimate, personal realm in which his mounted on the belvedere, a tower on the hilltop
quest for a total sensory experience could be fully behind Taliesin, so that the music of Beethoven
realised. and other composers could be broadcast across
Musical instruments became a second ‘hearth’ in the fields for the edification of the apprentices and
his houses. Despite his early success, Wright aban- farmers.15
doned his family with Catherine Wright and their Given Wright’s youthful immersion in classical
six children in 1909 and departed for Europe with music and his association with Adler, one has to
Mamah Cheney, the wife of a client, precipitating wonder just how music and acoustics influenced
a long hiatus in which he was beset by negative pub- Wright’s career subsequently. According to Sullivan,
licity and lawsuits that frustrated his ability to obtain Adler’s acoustical work was entirely intuitive: ‘I then
and realise many new commissions until the mid- discovered what Mr. Adler knew about acoustics. …
1930s.10 During this period, from 1909 to the mid- I found out the extent of Mr. Adler’s knowledge in
1930s, music was a persistent presence and connection with that building [the Chicago Auditor-
perhaps something of a solace to Wright, who ium]. It was not a matter of mathematics, nor a
seemed to crave music in his life and managed to matter of science. There is a feeling, perception,
acquire pianos for his living quarters in Tokyo, for instinct, and that Mr. Adler had … a grasp of the
the rough-hewn Arizona desert camp, ‘Ocatillo’, in subject … which he could not have gained from
1927 and for the newly constructed drafting room study, for it was not in books.’16 Wright’s admiration
at Taliesin West in 1937. By 1959 there were a and respect for Adler (the ‘Old Chief’) is evident in
dozen pianos at the two Taliesins, six of them of An Autobiography: ‘He commanded the confidence
the first quality.11 of contractor and client alike. His handling of both
In 1937 Wright formed a family orchestra while was masterful. He would pick up a contractor as a
staying at the Jokake Inn in Scottsdale, Arizona, mastiff might pick up a cat—shake him and drop
just as he had done with his first family in the Oak him. Some would habitually fortify themselves with
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The Journal
of Architecture

a drink or two before they came up to see him. All into Chicago for many years he carried a pocket
worshipped him.’17 edition of Shakespeare’s plays.23 Joseph M. Siry,
Evidence that Wright continued on Adler’s intui- an authority on Wright’s and Adler & Sullivan’s thea-
tive path throughout his career, in parallel to the tres, auditoria and religious buildings, has observed
scientific approach of Sabine and his successors, that Wright held theatre in high regard as the gath-
appeared in 1951 when Ling Po, an apprentice, ering place of all the arts—literature and poetry,
asked Wright about the laws of acoustics:18 ‘My stage design, music and architecture.24 Citing a
dear boy, I’m no expert. I couldn’t tell you anything Wright apprentice, Kelly Oliver, Siry stated that
about acoustic laws. I could only tell you what would ‘Frank Lloyd Wright loved the theatre. Of all its
work according to my idea, and what wouldn’t. many forms his first love was the small intimate
Founded upon what I learned from Old Dankmar theatre that was more like a living room.’25
Adler, chiefly and what’s happened to me since in Siry traces Wright’s efforts to create a New
little wayside experiments.’19 It is significant that Theatre through three versions: The first, for Wood-
Wright, in his role as teacher to his apprentices, stock, New York in 1931 (Fig. 2), was small, intimate
then expounded at length on Adler’s acoustical in size (774 seats and some box seats) and mechan-
methods (condensed in his conclusion to ‘deaden ised to speed the changing of scenery. Sound quality
the surfaces, expand the house, make the air cur- was enhanced by the elimination of the proscenium,
rents work with you … ’20) some fifty years after the projection of the stage apron towards the audi-
Adler’s death and well into the institutionalisation ence and the extension of a sounding board out over
of acoustics as a science. the audience. When that commission failed to mate-
rialise Wright found a second potential client in Hart-
From sound in theatres to the sound sphere of ford, Connecticut, in 1948, but that venture also
houses failed. The New Theatre was finally realised as the
Theatre design with Adler & Sullivan and on his own Dallas Theatre Center in 1959 where Wright
provided Wright with the opportunity to develop exchanged the sounding board of the two previous
and refine the intuitive sound consciousness that designs for a ceiling of suspended, 4-inch thick con-
he carried over to his domestic architecture. Sound centric arcs of concrete faced with acoustical plaster
in domestic settings did not have to be as carefully (Fig. 3) radiating outward from the stage to form a
calibrated as in the theatre but it had to be graphic rendition of sound waves—a mutually rein-
managed. Theatre held a special significance for forcing synthesis of sight and sound.26
Wright, modelled by the theatrical aspects of his Having grown up in a house of music where he
father’s and Uncle Jenkin’s preaching, his mother’s absorbed the music-as-architecture metaphor,
teaching and his own participation in the Esteddvod Wright’s interest in a synthesis of domestic architec-
at family gatherings.21 As a boy he professed an ture with music and theatre was manifested as early
interest in becoming an actor,22and as a commuter as 1895 in the children’s playroom of his Oak Park
 6

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

Figure 2. Plan, New

Theater, Woodstock,
N.Y., 1930, The Frank
Lloyd Wright
Foundation Archives #
3106.021 (The Museum
of Modern Art | Avery
Architectural & Fine Arts
Library, Columbia
University, New York).

home and developed over numerous subsequent relationship of music to architecture for the Fellow-
commissions.27 Wright’s desire to enfold music ship members, of providing a venue in which the
into his own domestic life culminated, however, Taliesin community could gather and entertain one
with the formation of the Taliesin Fellowship in another and as an attraction to prospective clients.
1932 for which he would eventually design five They were encouraged to visit and stay at Taliesin
theatres.28 The Fellowship became an extension of where the combination of Wright’s buildings, the
the architect’s life and practice in which the theatres landscape and the pervasiveness of music powerfully
served multiple functions: those of consolidating the affected many of the clients who came because they
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The Journal
of Architecture

Figure 3. Interior
photo, Kalita
Humphreys Theater,
Dallas, TX, 1959, The
Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation Archives
#5514.0018 (The
Museum of Modern Art
| Avery Architectural &
Fine Arts Library,
Columbia University,
New York).

were themselves musicians or aficionados of serious arrangement that embraced an orchestra pit project-
music.29 ing forward from the stage. Audiences of 180 sat in
close proximity to the players where, from either
Two theatres: refining acoustics through trial wing of the ‘V’ of seats, one half of them viewed
and error simultaneously the players and the other half of
Two of the theatres that Wright designed for the the audience, compounding the visual-aural experi-
Taliesin Fellowship (‘little wayside experiments’)30 ence while enhancing the sense of intimacy.31
enabled him to refine acoustics through trial and Sound resonating from a wooden floor over a
error. At the Hillside Playhouse at Taliesin (1951; volume of space reflected off a wooden sounding
Fig. 4) he inserted a five-tiered V-shaped seating board projected over the stage towards the audi-
 8

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

Figure 4. Interior,
Hillside Theater,
Taliesin, WS, 1952
(Photo: author).
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The Journal
of Architecture

Figure 5. Longitudinal
Section, Cabaret
Theater, Taliesin West,
Scottsdale, AZ, 1952,
The Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation #3803.164
(The Museum of
Modern Art | Avery
Architectural & Fine Arts
Library, Columbia
University, New York).

ence. Wright described the resulting acoustics at Hill- this backboard wall, the sound—now a reflex—
side as ‘some interesting experiments in sound— spread to the audience. Integral sound.’32
reflexes ending up with the loudspeakers beneath In 1949 Wright designed the Cabaret Theater at
the stage pointing toward the rear wall of the Taliesin West,33 a small, self-effacing building
recess in which the screen stood. Sound to permeate unlike the larger ‘New Theater’ designs of 1931
the house instead of hitting hard on the ear. From and 1948, but quite ingenious in its own way. The

Figure 6a. Latitudinal

section drawing by
Curtis Besinger, Cabaret
Theater, Taliesin West,
Scottsdale, AZ, 1952,
call # MS 241 D Folder
22.16. (Curtis Besinger
Collection, Kenneth
Spencer Research
Library, The University
of Kansas Libraries).
 10

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

Figure 6b. Plan,

Cabaret Theater,
Taliesin West (Curtis
Besinger Collection,
Kenneth Spencer
Research Library, The
University of Kansas
Libraries, call # MS 241
D Folder 2.51. a
oversize).

Cabaret (figs 5, 6a, 6b) is a 94’ by 24’ oblong struc- The main entrance to the Cabaret (see Fig. 6b)
ture of desert-masonry,34 partially submerged below leads to a gallery that traverses the outside of the
the desert floor. Its flat roof is accented by battered east wall to the dining platform where it turns 180
pylons at the south (main) entrance and a two-foot degrees and descends as a ramp to the seats. The
rise in elevation at the north end that accommodates gallery is enclosed to the east by another out-
a dining platform, film projection booth and fire- wardly-tilted spur wall that supports an inward-
place. Although the general shape of the Cabaret leaning metal frame that carries a glazed roof and
is a ‘shoe box configuration’ its west wall tilts 20 inward-leaning plywood panels (originally of
degrees west of perpendicular while the east side canvas). These swing upwards to open the gallery
of the building leans outward as a battered stub to the outdoors. The panels that line the inner side
wall from which eight reinforced concrete braces of the gallery are also hinged so as to swing
angle inward to support the roof slab (Fig. 6a). A upward to close each of the broad 6’4” x 3’4” open-
dining platform to the rear overlooks ten descending ings between the concrete braces that support the
tiers of angled seating, for an audience of approxi- Cabaret roof and enclose the Cabaret interior.
mately 75, that are accessed by a ramp alongside These panels allow for the creation of differing day
the building’s east wall. Owing to the slope of the and evening light and weather conditions as well as
seating the ceiling height is six feet six inches at acoustical adjustments in that the panels on the
the uppermost tier and nine feet at the bottom east side of the interior can be closed to form a hori-
tier. The stage floor is a resonating wooden floor zontally indented surface less susceptible to sound
over a void.35 reflection than a vertical flat surface would be.
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of Architecture

An apprentice, Curtis Besinger, observed that, which the projection of music and voice were care-
because the two long walls are wider at the ceiling fully calibrated, to homes in which the predominant
level than at the floor level and the floor slopes sound was non-musical. Yet even as he created the
downward toward the stage, a forced perspective first Prairie house in 1901 the proliferation of electri-
results that negates the tunnel-like nature of the cally-operated machines and devices—telephones,
space,36 another synthesis of the visual with the gramophones, wirelesses, vacuums and motor
acoustical in order to enhance the audience experi- vehicles—were dramatically altering the interior
ence. In a similar vein, Wright had the film projector and exterior soundscapes of modern domestic life.39
in the Cabaret altered so that the audience would The nineteenth-century legacy of American dom-
see the sound track as well as the film. estic architecture was a parade of historical revivals
In the 1951 interview Wright described the articu- in which interiors were comprised—with some
lation of the Cabaret ceiling as ‘like putting tension notable exceptions40—of an assemblage of box-
in the head of a drum, … Then the ceiling was a like rooms. Wright’s first Prairie house (see figs 1a,
little hard and a little bare so I put those free-stand- 1b) was revolutionary in that it opened the principal
ing strips running across the ceiling—across the living spaces of the first floor into a nearly continu-
sound, much as you’d tighten a violin string on a ous space even as the soundscape of the domestic
fiddle. Now, just what they do, I don’t know. But interior was being contested by the intrusive
they do something. Because the sound is very sounds of these new machine-age technologies.
much—more resonant after that, than it was Wright’s open plan seems counter-intuitive and
before.’37 A photograph from the 1960s (Fig. 7), posed a new acoustical challenge—how to modu-
reveals a series of six pairs of wooden dowels that late the resulting domestic soundscape? The
extend from the piers on the east (right hand) side answer to this question requires some prefatory con-
of the interior to the ceiling’s midpoint where they siderations:
were fastened to one of six 31” by 9” plywood A rectangular room with a flat ceiling and hard
sheets to which six Chinese paintings on silk were surfaces produces undesirable reflections that have
attached. This unusual apparatus represents the traditionally been muted by carpets, curtains, uphol-
‘free standing strips’ to which Wright refers as stered furniture and other decorative features.
‘running across the ceiling—across the sound’38 Moreover, Wright’s concern with sound in the
and with which he attempted to modulate the home is but one facet of his concurrent concerns
sound in the Cabaret. with the visual, tactile and kinaesthetic senses
within the totality of the design process.
Sound in the Domestic realm As practical design strategies Wright extended the
In leaving the offices of Adler & Sullivan for an inde- open-planned Prairie houses laterally on their sites,
pendent practice dominated by domestic commis- with cross-axial plans (or variants of them) to
sions Wright moved from realms of design in diffuse sound over distance as sonic decay in con-
 12

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

Figure 7. Interior,
Cabaret Theater,
Taliesin West, Frank
Lloyd Wright
Foundation
#3803.4167.

trast to the verticality of the Victorian and Renais- wooden screens, spur walls and lowered horizontal
sance Revival traditions of the era. beams in transitional spaces act as baffles and
Prairie house rooms were frequently designed filters while discretely defining individual spaces.
with indeterminate boundaries, as in the Darwin Wright manipulated the shape of domestic spaces
Martin and Allen-Lambe houses where structural with impunity, using barrel vaults (Dana House),
pier clusters rather than walls with right-angled shifted ceiling planes (Robie House) and ceilings
corners diminished reflection. Materials, structural shaped by gables (Heurtley house) and gambrels
elements and features were used to minimise and (Little House #1). Floor levels were shifted as well
control reverberation and reflection. Subtle textures in numerous houses. Lowered ceilings and horizon-
of wood, sand-floated plaster, art-glass windows tal beams in transitional spaces create interior land-
and furniture fabrics absorb sound. Fine slatted scapes in which subtle changes in sound quality
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The Journal
of Architecture

(along with the physical sensation of compression initially designed in 1911 the living room was a
and release) from space to space comprised one single-storey space 18’ 8” wide by 36’ 6” in length
facet of Wright’s desired experiential totality. rising approximately 12 feet beneath a prairie-style
Simple lath-like wood mouldings were used to roof perched on the brow of a hillslope above
articulate the contours of ceilings and walls, often apprentice living spaces. Following the 1914 fire
directed movement, and functioned acoustically. the footprint of the living room remained the same
Working within the contexts of his two primary dom- but after the 1925 fire the space was widened and
estic prototypes, the Prairie house and the Usonian the roof was reconfigured so that a new gable at
house, Wright continued to innovate intuitively. the northeast end gave way to a higher gable reach-
As a first conclusion it must be recognised that ing 16 feet at the opposite (dining) end where the
Wright worked with sound at multiple levels in his space trails off into a two-storey cleft that would
houses: at a practical level, with design strategies diffuse sound wave reflection.
modulating sound in the open plan (by the expan- The grand piano (Fig. 8; covered by a white sheet
sion and compression of contiguous spaces, the to the lower left in this photograph) is located in the
shaping of rooms and shifting of floor levels, the northwest ‘corner’ of the Taliesin living room under
extensive use of unpainted wood and sand-textured a smooth plaster plane that forms one half of the
plaster, extensive use of dropped beams between ceiling gable, the opposite plane of which is inter-
rooms, piers, posts and fine wooden balusters); at rupted by an extruded fold striated with lath-like
a conceptual level, in envisioning the home as a wooden mouldings. In view of Wright’s conviction
place for music; at a metaphorical level on which that the ceiling mouldings in the Cabaret at Taliesin
the house can be experienced as music. West ‘do something’ to the sound (though he
doesn’t know what), the differing treatments of
Taliesin, a place for music (1911—1914— the two ceiling surfaces in the Taliesin living room
1925ff) appear to be sound-related. The fold in the pitched
In 1934 Wright expressed a desire to synthesise ceiling and the mouldings act as a textural deterrent
architecture and music in the home: ‘More and to sound reflection even as they form a lively visual
better music a la camera (music in a room—room abstraction. That Wright’s (and Adler’s) intuitive
at home I say) is a necessary factor in more and approach to sound belongs to a long-standing pre-
genuine culture.’41 The living room at Taliesin epit- scientific tradition is supported by Michael Forsyth’s
omises these intentions with an astonishing space observations of the Residenz Theater (1751) in
calculated to appeal to potential clients, and for Munich where the decoration, ‘is entirely modeled.
entertaining friends and the edification of Taliesin’s Such decoration in old theaters and concert halls
apprentices. The current post-1928 Taliesin living has the useful acoustic function—unknown to
room accommodates social functions for up to 75 their original architects—of scattering, or ‘diffusing’,
people yet maintains an exceptional intimacy.42 As the reflected sound in several directions.(fn 6)
 14

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

Figure 8. Living room,

Taliesin, Spring Green,
WS, 1925ff (Photo
author).
 15

The Journal
of Architecture

Modern auditoria are often designed with a broken tion of a hifi system, ‘The acoustics in the living
wall surface, sometimes in the form of abstract dec- room is outstanding; the sound is very uniform
oration, for the same reason’. [Italics added]43 throughout the large space … ’46
Wallace Sabine made a similar case in the essay To ascend to the main living floor of the Coonley
‘Architectural Acoustics’, where he describes how House and move through the pulsating shapes of
sharp reflections from the smooth surfaces of a its spaces is to experience architecture as a form of
cylindrical church ceiling were corrected by coffering music choreographed by subtle changes in ambient
the ceiling.44 sound caused by the shifting ceiling heights, the
width and shapes of spaces, the textures of floor sur-
The Coonley House —the house as music (1908) faces, and the wooden mouldings that guide and
The analogous relationship of architecture and arrest one’s movement as the case may be.
music that Wright absorbed from his father is epit- Grant Hildebrand has explored the house-as-
omised in the Avery Coonley House (1908) of music analogy in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Palmer
which he said: ‘[It is] the most successful of my House (1950), where, in recognition of the obvious
houses from my standpoint.’45 The principal living disparities between architecture and music, he pro-
spaces of the Coonley House are elevated a full poses making an analogy between the Palmer
storey above grade where eleven of its fourteen House and Beethoven’s music ‘abstractly —as
rooms have ceilings formed by their enclosing opposed to our experiential perception of it’, and
gabled and hipped roofs. The plaster ceiling of the builds a compelling case in terms of shared
living room [Fig. 9], the largest space in the house themes, progressions, modular systems and such
at more than 900 square feet, is a semi-pyramidal qualities as ‘entity, oneness in diversity, depth in
hipped configuration that acts as a resonant mem- design, [and] repose in the final expression of the
brane owing to its suspension from the roof struc- whole’.47 Wright’s concern with acoustics was not
ture. The ceiling mouldings evoke spreading tree confined to the interiors of his houses, however.
branches abstractly and tie them visually to the With the first Prairie house in 1901 Wright estab-
fern-and-birch mural that flanks the fireplace and lished the principle that the interior spaces of his
to the panoramic vista of plants and trees beyond houses would be as continuous with the exterior
the windows that wrap nearly three sides of the environment as possible, considerations of privacy
room. The ceiling mouldings also organise the and weather notwithstanding. He exploited natural
central space of the room and, like those in the opportunities wherever they occurred on building
Cabaret at Taliesin West and the Taliesin living sites and introduced nature into the homes in the
room, ‘do something’ to temper the sound of the form of plants, flowers, tree branches, wood grains
piano (that used to be in the southwest corner of and water features. Natural sound was no exception.
the room). Dean Eastman, who has restored the Wright’s quest to integrate exterior sound with
Coonley House, writes that based upon his installa- the interior of the home is evident in the grammar
 16

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

Figure 9. Living Room,

Avery Coonley House,
Riverside, IL (1908), The
Frank Lloyd Wright
Foundation
#0803.0022 (The
Museum of Modern Art
| Avery Architectural &
Fine Arts Library,
Columbia University,
New York).

of the Prairie House where rows of casement buildings (the Horner, Gale, and Affleck houses)
windows, protected by wide eaves, swing open out into space at the tree canopy level. This occurs
more generously than conventional sash windows most spectacularly at Fallingwater, where the
to admit, or close out, natural sounds and fresh major cantilevers project upstream, downstream
air. Whether cross-axial, T-shaped or L-shaped, the and across Bear Run.
axes of Prairie house plans were given an enhanced Pools and fountains were located within or adja-
outward directional thrust through horizontal cent to many houses. At the second Jacobs House
mouldings, horizontally-raked roman brick courses (1943) a small pool bisected by glass exists both
and the telescoping of spatial extremities along the inside and outside the house. Visitors to the Susan
outwardly-directed axes. Integral porches are Dana House (1901) ascend a half-storey to the
common in Wright’s houses (see Figs. 1a, 1b) but reception area where the sound of water pouring
he was not averse to cantilevering some clients’ from Richard Bock’s ‘Moon Children’ relief sculpture
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The Journal
of Architecture

into a hexagonal pool enhances the arrival experi- Eastern houses in that both systems depend upon
ence. On special occasions visitors were treated to the passage of air moving through the upper
a chorus from the gallery (a full storey above the reaches of the house to evaporate the water in the
living hall) or music from the Cecilian organ on a fountain and cool the space. Wright may have
balcony opposite the gallery.48 Along the entrance known of the malqaf through personal connections
road to Taliesin visitors are greeted by the sound of that included apprentices from Egypt and his own
the waterfalls at the dam that Wright constructed visits to Egypt and Iraq.50
to generate electricity for his home. He subsequently Every commission, site and client represented an
redesigned the dam to incorporate a stepped stone opportunity to Wright, but those offering moving
pyramid that altered the sound of the falls.49 Further water—now recognised as the most preferred
on, near the principal entrance to Taliesin, a rec- sound in nature51—clearly stimulated his aural
tangular stone trough for watering horses was con- imagination. The Pew House on Lake Mendota, Wis-
verted so that the water spills into a lower stone consin (1939) is designed so that its cantilevered
basin. Three fountain features at Taliesin West living room and porch straddle a small stream that
bring the welcome sight and sound of water to the flows into the lake. The George and Mary Gerts
desert site. Cottage (1902) in Whitehall, Michigan and the
A water feature is the centerpiece of the Harold W. A. Glasner House project for Glencoe, IL
Price, Sr, House (1955) in North Phoenix, Arizona, (1905), both involved portions of the houses that
and represents a radically open solution to living in would bridge a stream-bearing ravine.
desert conditions. The house, a 5,000 square feet For the Mrs. Clinton Walker House in Carmel,
single-storey structure on a slightly elevated site, fea- California (1948), Wright designed a hexagonally-
tures a 17 feet-high central atrium that divides the planned living room on a rocky promontory pro-
living, dining and kitchen spaces from the tected from the Pacific surf by a masonry prow.
bedroom wing. Square in plan, the atrium is con- The metal-framed windows of its five-faceted bay
structed of fourteen reverse-tapered concrete block are arranged in three set-back tiers cantilevered
piers from which two-feet tall thin steel-pipe over a masonry base forming a domestic metaphor
columns support the flat roof. Two thirds of the for the bridge of a ship (figs 10a, 10b). The
space between the columns can be closed off by bottom tier of windows rests upon a wooden
pairs of decorated wooden shutters whilst the base-board containing vents that slide open or
upper five feet are fully open to the exterior, closed horizontally to regulate the sound of the
making the atrium an entirely openable pavilion. surf (and vent the room).
At its centre, beneath a square opening to the sky, The sound of moving water can also be regulated
water bubbles up in a shallow bowl and overflows at Fallingwater, the Edgar Kaufmann House, on Bear
into a square basin. The Price atrium is similar in prin- Run, Pennsylvania (1937), through a hatch leading
cipal to the malqaf [windcatcher] in traditional Near down to the stream. Among the numerous authors
 18

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

Figure 10a. Window

bay, Mrs. Clinton
Walker House, Carmel,
CA, 1948 (Photo
author).

who have written about Fallingwater, two have heard throughout; it is less commonly observed
addressed the relationship of the sound of the falls that its sound is muted by the masses of concrete
to the house: the differences in their respective that intervene between the waterfall and the living
approaches is a measure of the wondrous complex- spaces … with the consequence that the sound is
ity of the building. Grant Hildebrand, an architect heard throughout, but softly.’52
and historian, analyses Fallingwater in terms of pri- Neil Levine’s meditation on Fallingwater takes as
mordial themes of prospect and refuge, and of the its point of departure Wright’s explanation for
psychological theme of hazard. Regarding sound placing the house over the waterfall rather than in
he noted ‘It is a commonplace that the waterfall is view of it—so that the Kaufmanns could enjoy listen-
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The Journal
of Architecture

‘the pulse of activity’56) —a vivid expression of his Figure 10b. Window

excitement about the modernity of the spectacle. bay detail, Mrs. Clinton
Walker House, Carmel,
Emily Thompson has defined modern sound as a
CA, 1948 (Photo
science-based activity that began with Wallace author).
Sabine’s formula, advanced during the 1910s and
1920s with the invention of new tools for the
measurement, recording and broadcasting of
sound, and culminated with Radio City Music Hall
where a ‘powerful combination of architectural
and electrical control over sound’ resulted in ‘a cul-
mination of the modern soundscape’.57 Yet when
it came to the science of architectural acoustics
that forms the core of Thompson’s book, Wright
ing to ‘to the music of the stream’. Thus, he wrote, was dismissive even after sixty years of practice
Wright ‘privileged the aural over the visual and and told his apprentices: ‘Well, that’s all I know
thereby gave precedence to the continual over the about acoustics. It isn’t much. But when they talk
momentary’. Levine’s observation that ‘The dimen- to you about the laws of acoustics just take it with
sion of time and its dependence on the sense of a grain of salt. … when it comes down to specifically
hearing play a crucial role in the experience of the controlling them by way of proportion and sub-
house … ’ provides an entrée into the innumerable stance and arrangements, I don’t think any of the
ways that the bold projection of its concrete cantile- specialists know very much about it.’58 Wright’s
vers allow Fallingwater to be a timeless participant in claim to a sound modernity was limited by his insis-
the life of its forest setting.53 tence on intuition and the necessity to adhere to
small, intimate spaces. Ironically, when he exceeded
these parameters for the 3,050 seat Grady
Discussion: The aural as a spatial concept, Gammage Auditorium in Tempe, Arizona, Vernon
before science O. Knudsen, celebrated successor to Wallace
Wright asserted his modernity in many ways Sabine and co-founder of the American Acoustical
throughout his life but most presciently in the Society, was called upon to correct Wright’s
closing pages of his 1901 essay ‘The Art and Craft design … scientifically.59
of the Machine’54 in which, from the top of a Why did Wright insist on solving acoustics intui-
great central Chicago office building, he composed tively, and why did he reject Twentieth-Century
an ecstatic paean to the industrial city as a acoustical science and the method of calculating
’monster leviathan’55 replete with analogies to the sound by the laws of physics? Based on the iterations
human body (‘flesh-like tissue’, ‘nerve ganglia’ and taken in this essay, and the concepts elaborated
 20

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

within them, several possibilities present themselves: Notes and references

Wright’s attitude towards science is indebted to his 1. Emily Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity: Archi-
childhood immersion in the Transcendentalist tectural Acoustics and the Culture of Listening in
thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson,60 who venerated America, 1900–1933 (Cambridge, Mass., The MIT
nature as a manifestation of God,61 and frequently Press, 2004). In 1895, at the request of Harvard’s Pre-
sident Eliot, Sabine used a compressed air-driven
questioned the value of science. Emerson wrote:
organ pipe and a chronograph to measure the length
‘Empirical science is apt to cloud the sight, and by
of sound duration which varied according to the
the very knowledge of functions and processes to
amount of absorptive material introduced into the
bereave the student of the manly contemplation of room. Sabine determined that the product of the rever-
the whole.’62 Wright echoed Emerson with: beration time multiplied by the total absorptivity of the
‘Science can take anything apart, that’s its office, room (x) is proportional to the volume of the room (y)
but it can never put the thing together again to and this—(x y= k) —became known as Sabine’s law.
live, you see. Science can give life to nothing; 2. He wrote: ‘Fascinated by buildings, she [his mother]
science can only provide you with the constituent took ten full-page wood-engravings of old English
parts and to put them together again to live after cathedrals from “Old England”, a pictorial to which
its life has been taken is beyond not only science the father had subscribed, had then framed simply in
flat oak and hung them upon the walls of the room
but even art.’63
that was to be her son’s.’ Frank Lloyd Wright, An Auto-
Wright’s dismissive attitude is also a reflection of
biography (New York, Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1943
his admiration for Dankmar Adler, a cherished edition), p. 11.
mentor who was the most esteemed acoustician in 3. Ibid., pp. 10–11.
the United States before Sabine. Furthermore, by 4. Ibid., p. 13.
the 1950s Wright was aware of the troubled history 5. Ibid., pp. 421–22: Wright to Carl Sandburg, ‘Carl, if my
of theatre and music hall acoustics that transpired mother hadn’t decided for me that I was to be an archi-
during his years of practice despite the constant tect, I should have been a very great musician. It would
advance of scientific approaches.64 Then there is have been my next choice. And since the mind required
Wright’s penchant for small, intimate spaces in for greatness in either art is the same, I should have
been ranked with Beethoven, I am sure.’
which sound is easier to control even as theatres
6. Ibid., p. 422. See also Frank Lloyd Wright: His Living
and music venues such as Radio City Music Hall,
Voice, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, ed. (Fresno, CA, The
with its 6,015 seats, were expanding in size.
Press at California State University, 1987), pp. 69–70:
Finally, Wright’s dismissal of the science of acous- ‘So when you listen to Beethoven you are listening to
tics is a manifestation of an absolute confidence in a builder. You are seeing him take a theme, a motif,
his ability to solve design problems intuitively that and building with it. All sorts of imaginative differen-
was reinforced, with the exception mentioned tiations and rhythms come out from his handling of
earlier, throughout his career by abundant positive that motif, and it is a source of continual admiration.
critical acclaim. You cannot help when you finish listening to a Beetho-
 21

The Journal
of Architecture

ven symphony, just knocking your head on the ground reational buildings and six unrealised non-domestic
with admiration and respect for the way he can build.’ projects.
7. According to Joseph M. Siry, The Chicago Auditorium 10. For an account of Wright’s life between 1909 and
Building: Adler and Sullivan’s Architecture and the 1930, see, Robert C. Twombly, Frank Lloyd Wright:
City (Chicago, IL, University of Chicago Press, 2002), His Life and His Architecture (New York, John Wiley
p. 236, Adler travelled to Europe in 1888 with Ferdi- & Sons, 1979), pp. 119–210.
nand Peck, the primary client for the Auditorium, and 11. See, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, ed., The
John Bairstow, a stage carpenter, and visited the Letters Trilogy: Letters to Apprentices, Letters to Archi-
Drury Lane Theatre in London, the Budapest Opera tects, Letters to Clients (Fresno, CA, California State
House, the Bayreuth Festspielhaus and other music University Fresno, 1986; 2nd ed.), Letters to Appren-
venues. See also Roula Mouroudellis Geraniotus, tices, pp. 28, 77.
‘German Design Influence in the Auditorium Theater’, 12. Wright describes taking part in an orchestra that his
in, John S. Garner, ed., The Midwest in American Archi- father assembled in Madison in An Autobiography,
tecture (Urbana and Chicago, IL., University of Illinois op. cit., p. 33, and his own family orchestra in Oak
Press, 1991), pp. 43–75. It is likely, given the popu- Park, in which each of the six children played an instru-
lation of German immigrant architects in Chicago in ment and Catherine sang, in An Autobiography, op.
the late nineteenth century, that Adler would have cit., p. 116.
been familiar with the many articles that were being 13. According to ‘My Method of Composing Music, by
published in the Deutsche Bauzeitung during the Olgivanna Lloyd Wright’, in, Maxine Fawcett-Yeske,
1880s when theatres and opera houses in Halle, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, compilers and editors, The
Vienna, Frankfurt, Dresden, Berlin and other cities Life of Olgivanna Lloyd Wright (Novato, CA, Oro Edi-
were being built or refurbished. Dankmar Adler, tions, 2017), pp. 281–2, Mrs. Wright drew upon
‘Theater Building for American Cities: First Paper’, music sources from her life in Montenegro, Serbia
Engineering Magazine, 7 (August, 1894), pp. 717– and the Caucasus, and her years of study under
730; the ‘Second Paper’ (September, 1894), pp. 815– the mystic, philosopher and composer George Gurd-
829, cites the isacoustic curve of John Scott Russell as jieff at his Institute for the Harmonious Development
an inspiration for the banking of seating in the Auditor- of Man in Prieuré des Basses Loges near Fontaine-
ium Building but does not cite German or French pub- bleau. She wrote that ‘From 1954 to 1960 I com-
lications pertaining to the acoustic design of theatres. posed over 100 works for piano as well as various
8. F. L. Wright, An Autobiography, op. cit., p. 21. orchestral scores for the dance, sonatas, trios, pre-
9. Wright’s non-domestic commissions during the Prairie ludes, a prologue and suite for violin, and orchestral
period include: Hillside Home School (1902), Larkin suites.’
Administration Building (1903–6), Dwight Bank 14. Frank Lloyd Wright, The Taliesin Prospectus (published
(1904–5), E-Z Polish Factory (1905), Frank Smith Bank by the Taliesin Fellowship, December, 1933) in Bruce
(1905), Unity Temple (1905–8), River Forest Country Brooks Pfeiffer, ed., Frank Lloyd Wright: Collected
Club (1906), Larkin Company Exhibition Building and Writings, vol. 3, 1931–1939 (New York, Rizzoli Inter-
Theater (1907), City Bank and Hotel (1909) and the national Publications, Inc., in association with The
Stohr Arcade (1909), as well as six resort and rec- Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, 1993), p. 165.
 22

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

15. Randolph C. Henning, ed., ‘At Taliesin’ Newspaper became busy in other things. I do not have a theater
Columns by Frank Lloyd Wright and the Taliesin Fellow- in the world which I have designed. Yes, indeed I will
ship 1934–1937 (Carbondale & Edwardsville, IL, be there.’
Southern Illinois University Press, 1992), p. 78. 23. Edgar Kaufmann, Ben Raeburn, eds, Frank Lloyd
16. Louis Sullivan, ‘Development of Construction’, Econ- Wright: Writings and Buildings (New York, Horizon
omist, 55 (24th June, 1916), p. 1252. See also Roula Press, 1960), pp. 302–303: ‘Shakespeare was in my
Mouroudellis Geraniotis, ‘German design influence in pocket for the many years I rode the morning train to
the auditorium theater’, in, Walter L. Creese, John Chicago.’
S. Garner, The Midwest in American architecture 24. J. M. Siry, ‘Modern Architecture for Dramatic Art’, op.
(Urbana, IL, University of Illinois Press, 1991), p. 65: cit., p. 219.
she notes that Louis Sullivan ‘owned lavish mono- 25. Ibid.
graphs on the Imperial Opera House in Vienna and 26. Ibid., p. 230.
the Opera House in Frankfurt’. 27. F. L.Wright, An Autobiography, op. cit., p. 116: ‘To
17. F. L.Wright, An Autobiography, op. cit., p. 107. each child, early in his life, I gave a musical instru-
18. FLLW Reel #18A April 1, 1951, transcribed ‘Acoustics’ ment. To learn to play it well was all I asked of
(The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives, The their education. … Their mother played piano,
Museum of Modern Art/Avery Architectural and Fine reading. I played the piano a little myself, trying to
Arts Library, Columbia University, New York), pp. 1–13. improvise, letting the piano play itself.’ The eldest
19. Ibid., p. 5. child, Lloyd, conducted with his cello bow and
20. Ibid., p. 7. rapped the skull of the player of a wrong note with
21. F. L.Wright, An Autobiography, op. cit., p. 30: ‘There the result that ‘The howls and wails that mingled
would be the Esteddvod [a traditional Welsh festival with the music gave a distinctly modern effect to
of literature, music and performance] then and there. every performance.’
His son [Wright], the “modern” note, would give 28. These are the Hillside Theatre at Taliesin, constructed in
“Darius Green and his Flying Machine” or “Wonderful 1933, burned and reconstructed in 1952, and the Kiva
One Hoss Shay”. But the hymn-singing—in unison of (1937), Cabaret (1949) and Music Pavilion (1956) at
course—was the most satisfying feature of the day, Taliesin West.
unless it was Uncle Jenkin’s preaching. All would join 29. For Two Chicago Architects and Their Clients: Frank
in, tears—under those circumstances—reaching their Lloyd Wright and Howard Van Doren Shaw (Cam-
best.’ bridge, Mass., The MIT Press, 1969), Leonard
22. See, Joseph M. Siry, ‘Modern Architecture for Dramatic K. Eaton submitted a questionnaire to 86 clients of
Art: Frank Lloyd Wright’s “New Theatre”, 1931–2009’, Wright and 92 clients of Shaw (or their representa-
The Art Bulletin (April, 2014): he cites a letter from Bea tives). Under the category of ‘Participation in the Arts
Handel to Waldo Stewart (November 6, 1959, box —a. Musician’, eleven Wright clients registered them-
177, folder 2, Dallas Theatre Company Archives) in selves as musicians as opposed to none for the conser-
which Wright is quoted: ‘If the people on your board vative Shaw. The weekly showing of ‘Art house’ films
are worried about me not coming they need not for I at the Hillside Theatre was open to the public—
wanted to be an actor when I was young and I another way of enticing clients.
 23

The Journal
of Architecture

30. FLLW Reel #18A April 1, 1951, transcribed ‘Acoustics’, 40. See Vincent J. Scully, Jr, The Shingle Style and the Stick
op. cit., p. 5. Style (New Haven, London, Yale University Press, 1973)
31. According to Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright for illustrations of coastal summer homes by McKim,
Monograph 1951–1959 (Tokyo, A.D.A. Edita, 1988), Mead, & White, Wilson Eyre, Lamb and Rich, and
p. 62, the seating of Wright’s Hillside Theatre #2 ‘is others in the 1880s, that feature large living halls and
planned on the reflex, rather than en face. He main- broad openings between the principal living spaces
tained that any performance was more pleasant to of the main floor.
behold from the ¾ angle than from head on, just as 41. From R. C. Henning, ed., ‘At Taliesin’, op. cit., p. 80.
the human face reveals its character in this way of 42. A client, Betty Van Orden (formerly Mrs. Stuart Richard-
seeing it.’ son), interviewed by Indira Berndtson on 22nd January,
32. F. L.Wright, An Autobiography, op. cit., p. 470. 1995, said: ‘That was one of the interesting things
33. The Cabaret replaced the Kiva (1939), a small 23’ x 30’ about that living room, … that we could have all of
desert masonry building that served as a theatre the apprentices—and there were a lot of them …
accommodating approximately 30 people. twenty or thirty—and the quartet and the maestro
34. Wright’s desert masonry consisted of faceted volcanic and Olgivanna or Madame—and it wasn’t crowded.
boulders found on and near the site that were usually And yet the evening that the four of us sat in front
arranged flat-side out within wooden forms and solidi- of the fireplace there, it didn’t feel bare.’
fied as masonry walls with a mixture of dry concrete 43. Michael Forsyth, Buildings for Music: The Architect, the
and small rounded filler stones. Most of the walls at Musician, and the Listener from the Seventeenth
Taliesin West were battered and under compression Century to the Present Day (Cambridge, Mass., The
but Wright’s decision to make the Cabaret ceiling/roof MIT Press, 1985), p. 156.
of desert masonry under tension was a risky experiment 44. Theodore Lyman, ed., Collected Papers on Acoustics by
that led to the need for additional support. Wallace Clement Sabine (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard
35. Curtis Besinger, Working with Mr. Wright: What It Was University Press, 1922), p. 137. Further support for
Like (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995), Wright’s belief in the efficacy of applied mouldings as
p. 208. a deterrent to excessive sound reflection can be
36. Ibid., p. 209. found in, Barry Blesser, Linda-Ruth Salter, Spaces
37. FLLW Reel #18A April 1, 1951, transcribed ‘Acoustics’, Speak, Are You Listening? (Cambridge, Mass., The
op. cit., p. 5. MIT Press, 2007), pp. 58–59: ‘As the aural analogue
38. Ibid., p. 8. of wallpaper, consider a wall that had a pattern of
39. As E. Thompson demonstrates in chapters 4, ‘Noise conch shells embedded in it, thus creating a pattern
and Modern Culture, 1900–1933’ and 5, ‘Acoustical of resonances at different frequencies—like variations
Material and Modern Architecture, 1900–1933’, of in aural color. Such a wall would have aural texture.
The Soundscape of Modernity, op. cit., a plenitude of By standing at the optimum distance, you would
new machines increased the level of noise, particularly hear the texture.’
in urban areas, which in turn lead to the creation of 45. Grant C. Manson, Frank Lloyd Wright to 1910: The
new materials for noise abatement in offices and First Golden Age (New York, John Wiley and Sons,
urban flats. 1958), p. 187.
 24

Frank Lloyd Wright’s

intuitive sound
modernity
Jack Quinan

46. Dean Eastman to the Author, e-mail 27th November, of 13th January, 1946, shows the dam with the current
2014; the message continues, ‘I believe the many pyramidal configuration.
sloped planes of the ceiling with varying heights 50. Wright was drawn to the Arab world as a child from
as well as the stiff and heavy ceiling and floor reading One thousand and One Nights, which he
play an important role. The Dining room acoustics passed on to his children in the form of ‘The Fisherman
are also very good.’ See also, Dean Eastman, Frank and the Genie’ mural in their Oak Park playroom.
Lloyd Wright’s Coonley House: An Unabridged Wright’s first documented architectural connection to
Documentary (published by Dean Eastman, 2014). Egypt, in 1927, came in a commission for six seasonal
47. Grant Hildebrand, Frank Lloyd Wright’s Palmer House tents at Raz-el-Bar, a Mediterranean beach town along
(Seattle, London, University of Washington Press, the Dumyât branch of the Nile. Among several Egyptian
2007), pp. 103–107. apprentices who joined Taliesin prior to 1955, Kamal
48. Mark Heyman, ‘Wright and Dana: Architect and Amin left architecture school in Cairo to join the Taliesin
Client’, in, Mark Heyman, Richard Taylor, Frank Lloyd Fellowship in 1951. Wright’s Baghdad, Iraq, commission,
Wright and Susan Lawrence Dana: Two Lectures enabled him to visit Cairo in May, 1957, according to
(Springfield, IL, Sangamon State University, 1985), Cairobserver.com. of 18th January, 2014.
p. 30. Donald P. Hallmark, ‘Dana-Thomas House: Its 51. Jian Kang, ‘Soundscape and Movement’, in, Peter
History, Acquisition, and Preservation’, Illinois Historical Blundell Jones, Mark Meagher, eds, Architecture and
Journal, Vol. 82, No. 2 (Summer, 1989), pp. 115–6, Movement: The Dynamic Experience of Buildings and
states that ‘Susan’s interest in music is as well docu- Landscapes (London and New York, Routledge Press,
mented as Wright’s. Seventy-seven of her original 2105), p. 124.
player organ rolls exist, evenly divided between the 52. Grant Hildebrand, The Wright Space: Pattern &
popular music of the day (circa 1905–1910) and classi- Meaning in Frank Lloyd Wright’s Houses (University
cal selections, particularly the works of Schubert and of Washington Press, Seattle, 1991), p. 104.
Beethoven. … She frequently hosted benefit musical 53. Neil A. Levine, ‘To Hear Fallingwater is to See It in
concerts, in the gallery and the Springfield newspapers Time’, in, Lynda Waggoner, ed., Fallingwater
reported regularly on her parties and receptions. Given (New York, Rizzoli International Publications, Inc.,
the architect’s love of music and his client’s request 2011), pp. 189–213.
that the Dana House have several musicians’ balconies, 54. F. L. Wright, ‘The Art and Craft of the Machine’, in,
it is no wonder that each room has a design develop- Edgar Kaufmann, Ben Raeburn, eds, Frank Lloyd
ment of its own that could serve as a music area. Wright: Writings and Buildings (New York, Horizon
Taken all together, the Dana House reflects its Press, 1960), pp. 55–73.
owner’s style in that it is a rich and complex symphony 55. Ibid., p. 72.
of architectural notes and lyrical melodies.’ 56. Ibid., pp. 72, 73.
49. Author’s conversation with Liz Phillips, a professional 57. E. Thompson, The Soundscape of Modernity, op. cit.,
sound artist based in New York. According to e- p. 233.
mail from Keiran Murphy, Taliesin Preservation Inc., 58. FLLW Reel #18A April 1, 1951, transcribed ‘Acoustics’,
to the Author, 1st February, 2018, a photograph op. cit., p. 9. Wright’s discussion of acoustics with his
from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, apprentices depended heavily upon what he learned
 25

The Journal
of Architecture

from D. Adler, much of which is available in Adler’s ton-Century, 1965), p. 59: ‘Most impressive was the
‘Theater Building for American Cities: First Paper’, op. gleaming square piano at the end of the room. My
cit.Wright’s innovations build upon Adler’s: he pre- brother always claimed it was a Steinway, but I know
ferred a small ‘house’ to a large one, he advocated very well that it was an Emerson, because I remember
‘hearing and listening as acute and perfect, as possible. the awe and admiration I felt, believing a man of that
Sight is the same. … And one thing that I substituted name could build pianos and write books, too—books
for his [Adler’s] trumpet was the flat overhead ceiling that one’s mother, father, aunts, and uncles were
with nothing touching it all around—timpanum, like a always quoting: “As Mr. Emerson says … ”’
drum. Over the audience and over the stage, alike— 61. ‘A man should carry nature in his head.’: Ralph Waldo
that works beautifully—and it works here [in the Emerson, ‘Concord Walks’, The Complete Works of
Cabaret]. … One level ceiling over performers and audi- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1904), vol. 12, ‘Natural
ence. Now the quality of that ceiling can be made any- History of Intellect and Other Papers’, paragraph 11
thing—you can almost tune it like putting tension on (Bartleby.com Great Books Online).
the head of a drum. But you’ve got to keep all reactions 62. Brooks Atkinson, ed., The Complete Essays and Other
away from it—see, I carried it over and left the wall free Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson (New York, Random
of this timpanum overhead.’ Wright then cites ‘the gash House, Inc., 1950), p. 36. Emerson also stated, p. 37:
beside the piano’—an opening in the west wall at the ‘A dream may let us deeper into the secret of nature
stage level for storage but which also enhanced the res- than a hundred concerted experiments.’
onance of the piano once it was moved onto the stage. 63. Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright: His Living
See also J. M. Siry, ‘Modern Architecture for Dramatic Voice, op. cit., p. 87.
Art’, op. cit., pp. 213–237. 64. These include Orchestra Hall, Chicago (1904), the
59. Joseph M. Siry, ‘Wright’s Baghdad Opera House and Eastman Theatre, Rochester, NY (1923), Severance
Gammage Auditorium: In Search of Regional Moder- Hall, Cleveland, Ohio (1931) and the Royal Festival
nity’, Art Bulletin, 87 (June, 2005), p. 289 (or Hall, London (1951). Regarding Severance Hall and
pp. 265–311). the Eastman Theatre, see Leo Beranek, Concert Halls
60. Wright’s sister, Maginel Wright Barney, reveals some- and Opera Houses: Music, Acoustics, and Architecture
thing of the status Emerson held in her family in The (New York, Springer Verlag, 2004; second ed.),
Valley of the God-Almighty Joneses (New York, Apple- pp. 61, 129.