United States, Scott #3910e, used (o), 2005, Disney Hall, 37¢

Item Specifics

Country

United States

Catalog Number

3910e

Stamp Type

General Issue

Condition

Used

Centering

XF

Stamp Format

Single

Topic

Architecture & Buildings

Year of Issue

2005

Item Description

United States, Scott #3910e, used(o), 2005; Celebrating America's Achievements in Modern Architectural Design, stamp shows black and white photograph of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California; in 1987, Lillian Disney donated $50 million to build a home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, in honor of her husband Walt Disney who had loved classical music; due largely to funding delays, the project took 16 years to complete, opening in 2003 and coming in at a total cost of $234 million (the underground parking garage alone cost $110million); Canadian-born, but Los Angeles based, architect Frank Gehry (b.1929-age 95) won the competition to design the new hall; according to Gehry, the hall was designed from the inside out; with the help of acoustic expert Yasuhisa Toyota, he created a curving, symmetrical interior in Douglas fir with the floors finished in oak; seats were placed around all sides of the stage; it was important to Gehry that “the musicians could come on stage, feel at home, and hear each other,” and also that “the orchestra and the audience would have an intimate connection with each other;” as he was designing the hall, Gehry committed to producing a building that would promote the best acoustics possible (see footnote); in order to do this, Gehry used ratios to test the acoustics in a model of the building, which was a 1:10 replica; Gehry had to scale all elements of the design accordingly, including the sound that he pumped into the model; for example, he had to reduce the wavelength of the sounds by a factor of ten in order to discover how his design would respond to the orchestras that would later perform in the hall, this was done to provide the best possible acoustics in its design; in the first full-scale test, Toyota himself said that he had never experienced such an acoustical discernment in any of the halls he designed in his native Japan; while the interior was focused on acoustics, the exterior was focused on flight; due to the mathematical complexity of Gehry's innovative ‘in-flight’ design, he relied on computer software to produce his design in a way that could be completed by contractors; for example, the box columns on the north side of the hall are tilted forward at seventeen degrees; the angular design was used by Gehry to "symbolize musical movement and the motion of Los Angeles;" 37 cents, lithography printed by Ashton Potter USA (APU), serpentine die cut simulated perforations: 10¾x11, issued with non-water soluble self-adhesive gum as one stamp in panes of 12 stamps for the set, image in black and white, green, orange, and purple colors for the titles and value, Scott 2025 Catalog Value: 50¢, very slightly off-centered (extremely fine), very light, double-rimmed, red-inked, quarter counter-clockwise turned, half circular, socked-on-the-nose cancel at the lower right quarter of the stamp and largely clear of the main images, good perforations, stamp was lifted from its mailing envelope using the Bestine solvent and placed on a piece of black card stock for an attractive and uniform album appearance with other stamps from the period similarly mounted; centering, mounting and largely image clear cancel warrants a selling price premium. This is not a 'bait-and-switch;' the stamp you see will be the one you receive.

Footnote: the problem of creating music with a room is that you want to hear the music from primarily from its source - the orchestra - and not from echoes and reverberations coming back to you from the walls, floor, and ceiling … but you do want to retain some reverberation as the music bounces around various objects in the area, including the walls, floor, and ceilings … this later reverberation gives music its depth, life, and reach … this is the way most sounds reach our ears … and interestingly why we have two ears … so we can know the direction from which the sound originates from the delay in the distance between our two ears; stereo systems can provide this desired reverberation by a micro delay, and then repeating the sound … live music cannot do this, as the sound is created only once, and must rely on bouncing these first sounds from objects with their slight delays … so in designing a room for the best sound, you want walls, floors, and ceilings to absorb sound to prevent echoes, but not too much for you want some reverberation … you also want walls, floors and ceilings that handle the range of sound evenly … you don't want walls that in some parts, for example, absorb bass and in other parts reflect bass … otherwise the reverberations come back to your ears unevenly … architects and acoustic engineers have come to rely of wood … in various types, shapes, and designs … to accomplish this simultaneous dampening and amplifying effect … and they also spend considerable efforts in placing the members of the audience in the right room locations so that the sounds reaching their ears, from the primary source - the orchestra - and from the secondary reverberation sources - objects - are in the right proportion and balance.

Please review my terms of sale. If you are not ordering from the United States, there is a $US1.65 additional postage expense that needs to be added to the price of the stamp. If you are ordering from the United States, there is only a $US0.73 added postage expense. Also, if you make additional purchases from my offerings, they can all go in one mailing at no extra shipping expense for the added purchases. I will send the purchase by US first class mail, since the relatively low value of the stamp does not warrant signature or tracking mail. Hence the buyer assumes risk of loss or non-delivery. I will keep a scan of my mailing to verify that the correct mailing address was used. 

By way of reference, I am an American Philatelic Society member (195176) and an American Stamp Dealers Association (ASDA) member. Thank you for looking, and I hope this is the perfect stamp to fill that gap in your collection.

Seller Information

Seller

JDumville (4146)

Registered Since

06/10/2018

Feedback

100%

Store

Worldwide Used Stamps

• Sales

Item Location

Virginia, United States

Ships To

Worldwide

Returns Accepted

Yes

Returns Policy

If not satisfied, return the stamp to me at your own expense, and I will refund the cost, but not my postage to you. If the stamp is not as described, I will refund the cost and reimburse you for postage both ways.