Music the Color of Architecture

An old building with a sad past captivated the imagination of 16-year-old Anna Schuleit-Haber and wouldn’t let go. The former state hospital in Northampton, Massachusetts, not far from the boarding school she attended, had closed a few years earlier. The paint was peeling, the bricks were crumbling, and nature was reclaiming the place inside and out. The hospital had fallen onto hard times because of overcrowding and funding shortages, and by the time it closed, it was less a hospital than an asylum for those who had no one else to care for them.
Later, when she was in college, Schuleit returned to the hospital with a vision and a plan. The work she created, “Habeas Corpus,” was presented in November 2000. It consisted of hundreds of speakers playing Bach’s “Magnificat” in a way that sounded as if the music was resounding from the walls and corridors themselves. Or, as Schuleit put it, “The music takes on the color of the architecture.”

More than 1,000 people attended the two-day concert, including some of those who had been residents there. People walked round the old building as it played the music, saturated in sorrow, awe, and love.

Watch the artist’s video of “Habeas Corpus.”

Trebbe Johnson
Trebbe JohnsonFounder
Trebbe is the author of The World Is a Waiting Lover and 101 Ways to Make Guerrilla Beauty. Her new book, Radical Joy for Hard Times: Finding Meaning and Making Beauty, will be published in Fall 2018 by North Atlantic Books. Her articles about people’s emotional and spiritual relationship with nature have appeared in Orion, Sierra, Ecopsychology, The Ecologist, The Nation, Harper’s and other magazines. She lives with her husband, Andrew Gardner, in rural northeastern Pennsylvania, a region currently under exploitation by natural gas companies.

MORE RADICAL JOY REVEALED

  • Friedmann Children 2 Copy

When Young People Mourn Lost Nature

Elizabeth's childhood home in New England was near a woodland. She loved spending time there. The woods were her playground, her refuge, her friend, her spiritual home. She knew those trees and stones, birds and [...]

More Revealed

SUBSCRIBE

JOIN OUR NEWSLETTER

Radical Joy Revealed is a weekly message of inspiration about finding and making beauty in wounded places.

2019-02-06T13:31:58-08:00

Give the gift of Radical Joy!

Donate
© Copyright 2012 -  Hosting by NEXUS.works   |   ALL RIGHTS RESERVED   |   POWERED BY WORDPRESS
FacebookInstagram
This website uses cookies and third party services. See our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy for more information. Settings Ok

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to track your path through our website. To assist in protecting your privacy, we anonymize the last 4 of the IP address.

Tracking Cookies

To monitor and help enhance your visit while on the website.

Host Accounts

We offer a individuals private member access as Hosts when they register. We offer Host newsletters and the ability to manage Earth Exchange Events & Stories that Hosts will author and help manage. We ask for basic information from Hosts to join. We additionally ask the Host to provide detailed information about their events and preparations. This includes images and narratives about their event and any Stories told about the Exchange Events hosted.