[Tim Gavrich]

I am almost as much a lover of music as I am of golf, and so I was thinking about both at the same time yesterday when it occurred to me that some similar principles must be going on in the craft of an album as go on in the design of a golf course.  In other words, what traits of our favorite artists' albums are also traits, at least a little bit, of great golf courses?  What could a golf course architect, established or aspiring, learn from a great rock and roll or jazz or classical multi-track work of music?

I am a big fan of Tom Waits' music in part, I believe, because I have found his studio albums to be put together in an extremely interesting way.  When you listen to one of his albums, he seems to be in complete control of the pace at which his work is unfurling itself and he is not afraid to include songs of quite markedly different length and style over the course of an album because when considered as a whole, the work is going to be shown not to be a collection of songs but an album in the truest and most wholesome sense.  (As a sidenote, this aspect of great music has been almost totally destroyed because of the massive change in how we take it in).  One such album is "Real Gone," from 2004.  Its longest song is "Sins of my Father," at 10 minutes, 37 seconds.  The shortest song on the album is 46 seconds, called "Clang Boom Steam."  And if you listen to the album, you'll notice that Waits seems to go back and forth from very harsh-sounding tunes like "Hoist That Rag" to more gentle-sounding and quiet songs like "Green Grass."  This sense of the virtue of variety seems to be lost on musicians and golf course architects alike.

As with Tom Waits in music, I have always perceived that grasp of the utility of variety on the golf side from Mike Strantz.  Caledonia, which I am playing tomorrow, has always struck me as a golf course containing great variety and near-perfect pacing.  I will be happy to comment further on Caledonia and furnish some pictures to go along with it tomorrow and after if there is interest.

Perhaps this whole line of thought is a little out-there.  But if anyone else has any thoughts along these lines, I'd love to see them.

Happy New Year, everyone.

--Tim

[Jeff Taylor]

A quote: "similar principles must be going on in the craft of an album as go on in the design of a golf course."
I think that you could say that if golf course architecture is an art form, and that principles of art should apply across all forms, then yes we can link the two. This worldview provides a framework for interpretation and appreciation.
There is nothing natural about music. It is absolute creation. Golf course architecture combines creation with discovery. The land is already there. At some point, we hit the wall in our linking the two art forms. However, vision, inspiration, and the use of tools all point me in the direction of classical music more so than jazz or rock. Rock music succeeded in spite of a lack of musical expertise. Jazz succeeded on musical expertise in spite of a lack of structure. Classical music requires expertise in all phases (composition, arrangement, execution, and feeling). Of course, this is an argument I can never win. After all, beauty is in the eye and ears of the beholder.

Don't let a lack of response to your thread keep you from posting pictures of Caledonia. There is little doubt that Mr. Strantz was an artist.

[Phil_the_Author]

Take any Harry Chapin album (You're welcome Mike Cirba!), particularly "Sniper and other Love Songs" and you'll find a work where each song is distinctive to its particular story and even where a horrible situation (Texas Bell Tower Massacre) can be made into an incredibly beautiful and moving work of music, the same thing can happen on land used for a golf course such as say a rock quarry in the middle of a piece of otherwise good golfing ground and lo' and behold you have a Merion...

[Michael Blake]

Tim,

There was a thread a couple of years ago and Lloyd Cole contributed to it with some posts regarding the similarities between the flow of an album and the routing of a course.  And coming from an accomplished songwriter/musician/golf course architecture junkie, it was insightful to say the least.  I remember one point he made about obvious 'filler' songs on albums and 'filler' holes on courses.

And I guess the great ones (albums & courses) have no obvious fillers.  Though, perhaps even the great ones (albums & courses) do have them because they serve a useful and greater purpose-to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.

I think I'm just rambling now.  Need to get outside for a run while the sun is out and it's a 'mild' 40 degrees.

Happy New Year.

[Jud_T]

All I can say is, that the average golf handicap on this site is around a 5, while the average music handicap is a 30...(Tom Waits excepted).  In fact, I'd say that there's a negative correlation..The few guys here that have a clue seem to be the higher handicap golfers. I guess we spent our college years rummaging through record stores and seeing off-the-run bands instead of beating balls....

[Tags:]

Tags:

[Tags:]

Tags:

Call to undefined function theme_linktree()