Pictures of Moonlight
By SIGALIT ZETOUNI
Toward
the end of the eighteenth century, Ludwig van Beethoven, who had
been living in Vienna, was considered an important rising young
composer. Beethoven was in his late 20s and the remarkable scope and
breadth of his work had already included the first and second
symphonies, several piano sonatas, and a duo of piano concertos. Around
the year 1800 Beethoven gave piano lessons to a pupil named Countess
Giulietta Guicciardi and after a few lessons the two had fallen in love.
The enamored composer proceeded to propose marriage to young Giulietta,
but the countess’ father forbade his daughter to marry Beethoven for
the difference in their class status. In his distress Beethoven wrote
the Sonata in C-sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2, and dedicated it to the
countess. The original title of the sonata was “Quasi una
fantasia”(almost a fantasy) and its romantic nature echoed Beethoven’s
autobiography. In 1836, almost a decade after Beethoven’s death, German
poet and music critic Ludwig Rellstab noted that the sonata reminded
him of the moonlight shining over Lake Lucerne, and thus established the
work’s popular name, Moonlight Sonata. Today,
the first movement of the Moonlight Sonata is the most illustrious. The
movement’s haunting character does not follow the traditional sonata
arrangement and turns the beginning into its main melody, instead of the
more common prelude. The second movement develops the melody and adds
comic tones, while the third movement is completely different with rapid
progressions from note to note that energize the sonata with an overall
dynamic force. More than eighty world-renowned pianists have recorded
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, each pursuing a unique development of the
score and a personal interpretation of the work’s emotional effects.
About one hundred years after Ludwig Rellstab sensed the moonlight
in Beethoven’s music, architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) built his
arresting masterpiece under the spectacular moonlight of Arizona.
Wright’s winter home and studio on the beautiful Sonoran desert outside
of Scottsdale was named Taliesin West, where he experimented with desert
living for more than two decades. In Arizona, Wright tested design
innovations, structural concerns, building specifics, and together with
his apprentices created a home, shop, school, and studio, that touched
on the boundless desert surroundings. In 1960, a small exhibit of
Wright’s early drawing opened at Taliesin West. A friend of the late
architect looked closely at the drawings and mused. Later he sat on a
long bench that faced the swimming pool terrace in the house’s garden.
“Overhead was a bright full moon. He gestured and asked Tony Puttnam (a
Taliesin fellow) to sit by him. He wanted Tony to see, from his vantage
point, the moonlight filtering through the cloth awning above.” (quote
is from Buckminster Fuller: Anthology for the New Millennium by Thomas
T. K. Zung, St. Martin’s Press, 2001, p. 366) The friend’s name was R. Buckminster Fuller.
One of the greatest American visionaries, Richard Buckminster Fuller
(1895-1983), was both a pragmatist and a utopian. Inventor, designer,
and intellectual, Buckminster (Bucky) Fuller believed in “more for
less,” and saw the need for environmentally sound design that would
benefit the masses while using small amounts of resources. His key
invention was the geodesic dome, a strong and economical structure that
enclosed a large space without supporting columns. The dome, composed of
triangles (which are twice as strong as rectangles) distributed stress
efficiently and withstood extremely harsh conditions. The U.S. military
used the lightweight domes to cover radar stations at installations
around the Arctic Circle. Bucky attributed the beauty of the geodesic
dome to the way “nature builds.” He believed that great
inventions possess the element of beauty, and considered Albert Einstein
a remarkable poet. Today, Bucky’s influence can be seen upon
generations of designers, architects, scientists and artists working to
create a more sustainable planet.
Recently,
New York artist Spencer Finch (b. 1962) created an installation entitled
“Lunar” on the open-air Bluhm Family Terrace at the Modern Wing of Art
Institute. During the evening hours “Lunar” glows the color of
moonlight, essentially the light measured and recorded from the full
moon over Chicago last July. Finch created a “lunar lander module,” and
on top he positioned a geodesic dome, a “buckyball” that resembles the
carbon molecules named for Buckminster Fuller. He explained: “Like just
about everyone, I wanted to make a picture of the moon or,
more specifically, of moonlight. I have always loved nocturnes and the
impossible attempts to paint near-darkness in near-darkness. I figured
there were probably enough literal pictures of the moon, so I began
thinking about the form of moonlight and how it is actually reflected
sunlight. This led me to explore the use of solar power to generate the
light of the moon. The structure of the lunar module and the buckyball
followed in short order—I thought it would be fun to imagine that a
lunar module returning from the moon with moonlight on board landed on
top of the Art Institute” (quoted from the Art Institute press
release). “Lunar” runs through April 8, 2012.
Published: December 04, 2011
Issue: 2011 Philanthropy Issue
The Demise of the Toboggan Run
Even if the snow does fall this season, there's no use anxiously anticipating a ride down a toboggan run. All toboggan slides in Cook County are closed indefinitely.
