216 On the Construction of Buildings 
~The connection which Music has with Architecture is analo- 
gous to that between the mind and the body. As the former re- 
quires for its due exercise the perfection of the latter, so music, 
when confined within the walls of a building, is dependent, for 
its full power and expression, upon a certain fitness and adapta- 
tion of form and construction. This fitness results, in part, from 
the associations naturally connected with some styles of architec- 
ture. Thus the forms of the ancient cathedrals are most befit- 
ting the majestic movements of the oratorio and the solemn mass. 
We there experience the most sublime effects of music, although 
this is a result to which the primary design of the architecture 
did not lock. But we also find the deductions from rmoderu scl 
ence to correspond, in great measure, with these accidental rela- 
tions ; for the forms and proportions of the cathedral partake of 
those that we should now suggest for structures designed for mt- 
sical effect. With as good reason, therefore, as the terms naval, 
military, and ecclesiastical, are applied to architecture, may We 
not claim for music also a distinctive department in this seience? 
_ The subject, in this view, has not yet received from the Profes- 
sion the attention its interest and importance demand. ‘Throug 
out the Continent of Europe, and especially in those portions 
of it we have been accustomed to regard as the home of the at's, 
this assertion will be found to hold true. While religion, a8" 
should, has received most homage, and the receptacles for paint 
ings aud statuary (in latter years more particularly ) are arrans" 
with strict regard to their full and proper effect, music has rarely 
found a fitting abode. If we turn to our own country, this trath 
is still more apparent. Here, until quite recently, no bnilding 
Birmingham Town Hall, and the Philbarmonic Hall at Liverpo” 
are still, without doubt, the finest structures of the kind in exist 
en : . 0 
upon the province of the professional architect, nor to ae 
put forth a theory which shall stand, unscathed in every Po" > 
beset with peculiar difficulties. Our knowledge of sound 7 
the laws of acoustics must still be considered very imper®” 
oe et ae 
* Within the past season the Boston Music Hall has been completed and dep 
aps estes Ee priate u: This building embodies in its construction the res' ults 
a series of laborious investigations, and experiments made by a committee: Fie ef 
for the purpose. _ Considering uncertain deductions, hitherto of all ine : 
Frias ctroctir Rea may justly be regarded as satisfuetory and od pod 
' hae a € a it dupe 
