MUSIC AND ARCHITECTURE

By: Arch. Ernesto R. Zarate

18th century German philosopher Friedrick von Schelling is the author of the famous quotation: “Architecture in general is frozen music.” The relationship between architecture and music is truly amazing. We could write several pages of dissertation comparing the two arts. It is no wonder therefore, that many architects are into music.

Here is a motley list of trivia that I was able to gather:

1. To pay for his passage, 1973 National Artist for Architecture Juan F. Nakpil worked as a pianist in the ocean liner he sailed in when he first traveled to the United States to study.

2. 1990 National Artist Lindy Locsin had to make a career decision whether to be a concert pianist or an architect. Thank God he shifted to architecture before his completing his final recital.

3. Filipino Architecture advocate Bobby Mañosa is a proud member of the Executives Combo, a band composed of prominent politicians and businessmen. His first choice of a college course was music but his father dissuaded from taking up music.

4. TV personality Ariel Ureta finished his architecture at UST but did not take the board and went to Radio then TV. He was one of the most prolific jingle composers during his advertising days.

5. The oldtimers would remember Eddie Peregrina, a singing idol of the seventies. He was the classmate of Arch. Ramon Zaragoza at the UST College of Architecture and Fine Arts.

8. Joey de Leon studied architecture at NU. He too composed many pop songs. He is also an accomplished artist (painting).

9. If he did not relocate to the United States in the eighties, Arch. J. Ramon Faustmann would have been one of the prominent architects in the Philippines today. Guitar music was his forte. He also performed with the Executives Combo.

10. Pop singer Ariel Rivera studied architecture at George Brown College in Canada.

11. Famous stage and screen performer Leo Valdez quit architecture while in his third year into the course to concentrate on his stage career.

12. Many still remember Nonong Pedero during the OPM era of Philippine music. He was an architectural student at UP when I first met him.

13. Singing idol Christian Bautista who seems to be more popular in Asia than in his home country is a graduate of Landscape Architecture at UP.

14. In the seventies, we also had composer/arranger and orchestra leader Emil Mijares who also took up architecture at Mapua together with the Pat Boone of the Philippines then, Nick Balbona, Jr.

15. In the States, Art Garfunkel of the famous Simon and Garfunkel songwriting and singing duo, studied architecture at Columbia U.

Other personalities who took up architecture in college but were not necessarily into music:

1. Jaime Zobel de Ayala graduated at Harvard where he finished a course on Architectural Sciences. He later went on to attend the Advanced Management Program in the Far East, conducted by the Faculty from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration in Baguio, in 1963.

2. Lito Atienza, the former Mayor of Manila and former DENR Secretary, studied architecture in UST.

3. Newly elected Mayor of Pasig Maribel Andaya-Eusebio is a registered licensed architect and takes over from her husband, Bobby Eusebio who is also an architect.

4. Pol Medina, the cartoonist and writer of the comic strip “Pugad baboy” finished his architecture at UST in 1983, worked for two years in Iraq, then started his career as a cartoonist with the comic strip about a community of fat characters called “Polgas.”

5. Other movie stars who took up architecture include Rita Avila, Ernie Ortega, Vic Vargas, Romnick Sarmenta and of course Miss Shamcey Supsup.

Did you know that even Adolf Hitler almost became an architect? In his biography found in Spartacus International on the Internet, we read that “…when he was eighteen Hitler received an inheritance from his father's will. With the money he moved to Vienna where he planned to become an art student. Hitler had a high opinion of his artistic abilities and was shattered when the Vienna Academy of Art rejected his application. He also applied to the Vienna School of Architecture but was not admitted because he did not have a school leaving certificate.”

by Ernie Zárate.)