Romanesque may first be sensed in new structural developments.. Sophisticated but unsatisfactory
attempts to vault the great basilican naves safely, with elements of
Roman, Byzantine, or Eastern origin, impelled progressive Romanesque
engineers, from about 1090 onward, to invent a new type of ribbed
groin-vaulted unit bay, using pointed arches to distribute thrust and
improve the shape of the geometric surfaces. Fifty years of
experimentation produced vaulting that was light, strong, open,
versatile, and applicable everywhere--in short, Gothic vaulting. A whole
new aesthetic, with a new decorative system--the Gothic--was being
evolved as early as 1145. The spatial forms of the new buildings
sometimes caused acoustic difficulties, which may help to account for
the concomitant development of the new polyphonic music that
supplemented the traditional Romanesque plainsong. Romanesque
architecture became old-fashioned, but its heavy forms pleased......
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