The Circle of Sound

Abstract Chapter 3 delineates how Busoni’s views about space and multi-dimensionality influenced his decisions about timbre, placement of instruments, and dramaturgy. Busoni’s compositions from the 1910s and 1920s feature sound radiating from different directions, textural layering, and evocations of depth and height through a play with register, timbre, acoustics, and time. Many of his aesthetic ideas were based on metaphysical notions of inaudible sound in the universe that he translated into audible sound using the model of physical space in architectural buildings. He also posited novel theories about how music could encircle a stage and envelop listeners as it emanated from different locations simultaneously. Architectural drawings for novel theatrical spaces, such as a triple stage opening inspired by Henry van de Velde, or a multilevel stage area, although never realized, informed his ideas about spatial instrument placement and inspired simultaneity of musical textures in Doktor Faust, BV 303.