Bach on the harbourfront: Geographies of the Toronto music garden

Abstract

Located on the redeveloping waterfront of Canada's largest city, the Toronto Music Garden is a unique public garden inspired by the first of J. S. Bach's Six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello. Designed through a collaboration with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and landscape designer Julie Moir Messervy, the garden attempts not to represent Bach or his music but to inscribe its essence on the landscape. Several lines of inquiry are pursued in this paper. First, it provides an overview of the geographies of gardens and the ways in which elements of garden design and music composition have influenced each other. Second, it reveals the creative process involved in translating the elements of one art form (music) to another (landscape design). Especially important to this process is Messervy's use of what she terms ‘archetypal’ landforms. Third, the Music Garden is analysed as an integral part of the lived landscape of Toronto's post-industrial waterfront. Finally, the paper contends that the power and significance of the Toronto Music Garden lies in the interstices between the emotional geographies that informed the design and the resulting affective atmosphere experienced by a diversity of visitors. The methodology for this project includes open-ended interviews, fieldwork, and archival research. This paper contributes to the ongoing discussion on the roles that the arts can play in the production and utilisation of distinctive public spaces.