Contemporary music and the visual arts
DelMarva LaPoule
Shahn the photographer) and I have been trying to come up with other
examples of music which are related to paintings, architecture, and
other arts. So far I have come up with Feldman (Philip Guston and
Rothko) and little else. Anyone know of one? Thanks.
Jerry Kohl
There are many examples. (Since this is posted on r.m.c.c., I presume
that
pieces like Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition are outside of the
time-
frame intended.)
Since you've started with two of Feldman's pieces, you might go on to
Coptic Light and Crippled Symmetry (both inspired by oriental carpets),
and the other compositions whose titles are names of painters: Franz
Kline, De Kooning, etc. The Austrian (formerly American) composer George
Lopez has written several such pieces, including Landscape with
Martyrdom
(I can't recall the painter's name in this case, though). Giselher
Klebe's
Das Zwitschermaschine, op. 7 (1950) is described as "meditations on Paul
Klee's Painting of the same title". Stravinsky's opera The Rake's
Progress
is based on the series of 18th-century engravings by Hogarth. Manfred
Trojahn's Architectura Caelestis (1974-75) is based on Ernst Fuchs's
painting *and book* of the same title. Randall Thompson's choral work
The Peaceable Kingdom (1936) is based on the well-known painting
by Edward Hicks.
Picasso's famous painting "Guernica" has inspired several like-titled
compositions, by Paul Dessau, William A. Penn (1970), Walter Steffans
(1976-78), Pépin Clermont (1952), and Leonardo Balada. Luigi Nono's
La Victoire de Guernica (1953) sets a text of that title by Paul Eluard,
but can hardly not be related to the painting as well. (Paul Vidal's
opera,
Guernica, however, was composed long before the Spanish Civil War--
and really before the remit of r.m.c.c., having been published in 1895--
and so has nothing to do with Picasso.)
Moving on, Vivian Fine composed a Quintet after Paintings by Edvard
Munch (pub. 1985), Roger Bourland composed Seven Pollock paintings,
for flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, violin, viola,
cello,
bass, tamtam (pub. 1980), as well as Three Dark Paintings for soprano
saxophone, viola, and cello (pub. 1989). Then there is Ron Nelson's
Five Pieces for Orchestra after Paintings by Andrew Wyeth (1979),
Alfred Schnittke's Five Fragments Based on Paintings of Hieronymus
Bosch for tenor, violin, trombone, harpsichord and string orchestra
(pub. 1996), two orchestral compositions by Elie Siegmeister, Fantasies
in Line and Color (Five American paintings) (pub. 1982--the paintings
in question are "The Peaceable Kingdom" by Edward Hicks, "Cat on the
Back Fence" by John Sloan, "Circus Forms" by John Marin, "Solitude"
by Edward Hopper, and "Battle of Lights, Coney Island" by Joseph
Stella), and Shadows and Light, Homage to Five Paintings: "Night Ship"
by Ryder, "All around the Fish" by Klee, "The Great Parade" by Leger,
"Blind Woman Arranging Flowers" by Degas, and "Starry Night" by
van Gogh (pub. 1978). Francis Baxter composed Four Ancient Chinese
Paintings: Four Seasons, for SATB chorus with piano accompaniment
(pub.1995), and Bertold Hummel wrote Acht Klangbilder for percussion
solo, op. 99a (pub. 1999), based on paintings by Andreas Felger. Louis
Andriessen also has composed a piece titled Paintings, for recorder and
piano (1965), but I don't know if it is meant to refer to particular
paintings, or is just a whimsical title.
(Pause to catch breath ... :-)
Bohuslav Martinu wrote a wonderful orchestral piece in 1954-55
titles Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca. Matthew Harris has
composed Starry Night: Seven Paintings for Violin, Cello and Piano
(1991), on Van Gogh's "Starry night", Rousseau's "Sleeping Gypsy",
Picasso's "Harlequin", Ensor's "Masks Confronting Death",
Matisse's "The Piano Lesson", Dali's "Persistence of Memory"
and Mondrian's "Broadway Boogie Woogie". Speaking of Mondrian,
paintings figure in several works by Karlheinz Stockhausen: Mondrian
in Adieu für Wolfgang Sebastian Meyer, Breughel in Zeitmaße, Klee
in Kontakte (though not particular paintings in these cases), but the
most direct example is "Pietà", from the second act of Tuesday
from Light, inspired primarily by Michelangelo's sculpture, though
also by other artworks of the same title. Another instance is the
"Drachenkampf" in act 3, scene 1 of Thursday from Light, inspired
by a painting in Xanten and a sculpture in the Altenburger Dom.
Another sculpture-inspired piece is the electronic "Wings of Nike"
by Barry Truax.
That's enough for paintings, drawings, engravings and sculpture.
So let's move on to architecture. Tilo Medek's Tag- und Nachtstücke
for Piano (1976-81), includes a piece titled "Verklemmter Drachenfels",
referring to the Drachenfels castle across the Rhine from Bonn.
Xenakis would be a natural in this department, as he was a practicing
architect as well as a composer, and in some cases (the Polytopes
come to mind) he combined these two skills. William Schuman
composed a wind-band piece called George Washington Bridge.
The Taj Mahal, naturally, has inspired a number of pieces, including
a well-known jazz tune (not to mention the performer who named
himself after the building), and Axel Raoul Wachtmeister's The
Taj Mahal: Trio for Women's Voices with Baritone Solo (1918).
Francis Poulenc wrote an "Eiffel Tower Polka", aka "Discours du
Général" for Cocteau's ballet-play "Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel,"
with music by Les Six: George Auric wrote the Overture, and the
other four composers were Arthur Honegger, Germaine Taillefaire,
Louis Durey and Darius Milhaud.
Need more? (I'm getting tired ... :-)
Jerry
Bryn Harris
"Jerry Kohl" <jerom...@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:3E67CF51...@attbi.com...
Ryan Tanaka
Jerry Kohl
> DelMarva LaPoule wrote:
>
> > I have been listening to William Schuman's "In Praise of Shahn" (Ben
> > Shahn the photographer) and I have been trying to come up with other
> > examples of music which are related to paintings, architecture, and
> > other arts. So far I have come up with Feldman (Philip Guston and
> > Rothko) and little else. Anyone know of one? Thanks.
>
> There are many examples.
[snip]
Forgot one of the most important of all:
Bryan Ferneyhough, Carceri d'Invenzione (cycle of 7 compositions),
based on the series of engravings by Giovanni Battista Piranesi.
For details see:
<http://www.edition-peters.de/ferneyhough/ferney_works.html>
Jerry Kohl
> Wah, paragraphs please!
Eeurgh! That did turn out terrible, didn't it? Sorry about
that--I'm of the "old school" who were accustomed to
browsers that didn't word-wrap, so I try to put hard returns
in at appropriate intervals. Trouble is, this new-fangled
Netscape thingy doesn't show me where the 78th character is.
Let me try again, with better subdivisions:
There are many examples. (Since this is posted on r.m.c.c.,
I presume that pieces like Mussorgsky's Pictures at an
Exhibition are outside of the time-frame intended.)
before the Spanish Civil War--and really before the remit of
r.m.c.c., having been published in 1895--and so has nothing
to do with Picasso.)
Moving on,
Vivian Fine composed a Quintet after Paintings by Edvard
Munch (pub. 1985),
Roger Bourland composed Seven Pollock paintings,
for flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, violin,
viola, cello, bass, tamtam (pub. 1980), as well as
Three Dark Paintings for soprano saxophone, viola, and
cello (pub. 1989).
Then there is
Ron Nelson's Five Pieces for Orchestra after Paintings
by Andrew Wyeth (1979),
Alfred Schnittke's Five Fragments Based on Paintings of
Hieronymus Bosch for tenor, violin, trombone, harpsichord
and string orchestra (pub. 1996),
two orchestral compositions by Elie Siegmeister:
Fantasies in Line and Color (Five American paintings)
(pub. 1982--the paintings in question are "The Peaceable
Kingdom" by Edward Hicks, "Cat on the Back Fence" by
John Sloan, "Circus Forms" by John Marin, "Solitude"
by Edward Hopper, and "Battle of Lights, Coney Island"
by Joseph Stella),
and
Shadows and Light, Homage to Five Paintings
(pub. 1978).: "Night Ship" by Ryder, "All around the
Fish" by Klee, "The Great Parade" by Leger, "Blind
Woman Arranging Flowers" by Degas, and "Starry
Night" by van Gogh
Francis Baxter composed Four Ancient Chinese Paintings:
Four Seasons, for SATB chorus with piano accompaniment
(pub.1995),
and Bertold Hummel wrote Acht Klangbilder for percussion
solo, op. 99a (pub. 1999), based on paintings by Andreas
Felger.
Louis Andriessen also has composed a piece titled Paintings,
for recorder and piano (1965), but I don't know if it is
meant to refer to particular paintings, or is just a whimsical
itle.
(Pause to catch breath ... :-)
Bohuslav Martinu wrote a wonderful orchestral piece in
1954-55 titled Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca.
Matthew Harris has composed Starry Night: Seven Paintings
for Violin, Cello and Piano (1991), on Van Gogh's "Starry
night", Rousseau's "Sleeping Gypsy", Picasso's "Harlequin",
Ensor's "Masks Confronting Death", Matisse's "The Piano
Lesson", Dali's "Persistence of Memory" and Mondrian's
"Broadway Boogie Woogie".
Speaking of Mondrian, paintings figure in several works by
Karlheinz Stockhausen:
Mondrian in Adieu für Wolfgang Sebastian Meyer,
Breughel in Zeitmaße,
Klee in Kontakte (though not particular paintings in
these three cases),
but the most direct example is
"Pietà", from the second act of Tuesday from Light, inspired
primarily by Michelangelo's sculpture, though also by
other artworks of the same title.
Another instance is the
"Drachenkampf" in act 3, scene 1 of Thursday from Light,
inspired by a painting in Xanten and a sculpture in the
Altenburger Dom.
Another sculpture-inspired piece is the electronic
"Wings of Nike" by Barry Truax.
That's enough for paintings, drawings, engravings and sculpture.
So let's move on to architecture.
Tilo Medek's Tag- und Nachtstücke for Piano (1976-81)
includes a piece titled "Verklemmter Drachenfels",
referring to the Drachenfels castle across the Rhine from
Bonn.
Xenakis would be a natural in this department, as he was a
practicing architect as well as a composer, and in some cases
(the Polytopes come to mind) he combined these two skills.
William Schuman composed a wind-band piece called George
Washington Bridge.
The Taj Mahal, naturally, has inspired a number of pieces,
including a well-known jazz tune (not to mention the
performer who named himself after the building), and
Axel Raoul Wachtmeister's The Taj Mahal: Trio for Women's
Voices with Baritone Solo (1918).
Francis Poulenc wrote an "Eiffel Tower Polka", aka "Discours
du Général" for Cocteau's ballet-play "Les Mariés de la
Tour Eiffel," with music by Les Six: George Auric wrote
the Overture, and the other four composers were Arthur
Honegger, Germaine Taillefaire, Louis Durey and Darius
Milhaud.
I trust that is more legible.
Jerry
Jerry Kohl
Just thought of two more "architectural" examples:
John Alden Carpenter's Skyscrapers (1926)
Heitor Villa-Lobos's New York Skyline (1939,
revised 1957). Originally written for the New
York World Fair. the melody of this composition
was "millimetricized"--literally traced from a poster
of the New York skyline onto graph paper, and
from this converted into a melody, which was then
freely harmonized.
Jerry
Samuel Vriezen
wrote:
>Since you've started with two of Feldman's pieces, you might go
>on to Coptic Light and Crippled Symmetry (both inspired by
>oriental carpets), and the other compositions whose titles are
>names of painters:
> Franz Kline,
> De Kooning, etc.
Also, Cage's life-long obsession with Marcel Duchamp, collaborations
with Rauschenberg and Johns, and the prints and watercolours he made -
not to mention the exhibitions of scores generated from the
'Variations' series (IIRC Miro once visited Cage and was intrigued by
their plastic possibilities, playing around with the transparencies
for half the afternoon)
>Louis Andriessen also has composed a piece titled Paintings,
> for recorder and piano (1965), but I don't know if it is
> meant to refer to particular paintings, or is just a whimsical
> itle.
More to the point would be his 'De Stijl'.
>Xenakis would be a natural in this department, as he was a
>practicing architect as well as a composer, and in some cases
>(the Polytopes come to mind) he combined these two skills.
A very literal case would be 'Metastasis' and its relation to the use
of surfaces based on conic sections in the Phillips Pavillion.
Examples of composers referring to paintings, photos, films, sculpture
or architecture are extremely commonplace in my experience. You really
have to try hard to miss examples.
--
Samuel
http://concerten.free.fr
The CHAINguardian
another (having read these posts with interest):
Ernst Bacon, Remembering Ansel Adams (1985), Richard Stoltzman, clarinet,
Warsaw Philharmonic.
I have a Chandos LP of Gerard Schurmann's Six Studies of Francis Bacon
(1969).
There's a Mark-Anthony Turnage piece titled Three Screaming Popes (After
Francis Bacon), and another titled Blood on the Floor (1993-6)
Another that came to mind: Philip Glass' soundtrack to North Star: Mark di
Suvero, Sculptor.
More Picassos: Harry Somers, Picasso Suite (1964); Virgil Thomson, Bugles
and Birds a Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1940)
and found with
http://groups.google.com/groups?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off
&q=turnage+bacon+screaming&sa=N&tab=wg
that there was a thread in rec.music.classical of 35 posts
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&th=ae7a
acecfda80814&seekm=47dk0c%24qh1%40mn5.swip.net&scoring=d#link1
Respectfully,
Joe Adelaars
Toronto
Jerry Kohl
> I just was browsing stock of CRI cut-outs at www.vergemusic.com and found
> another (having read these posts with interest):
>
> Ernst Bacon, Remembering Ansel Adams (1985), Richard Stoltzman, clarinet,
> Warsaw Philharmonic.
>
> I have a Chandos LP of Gerard Schurmann's Six Studies of Francis Bacon
> (1969).
>
> There's a Mark-Anthony Turnage piece titled Three Screaming Popes (After
> Francis Bacon), and another titled Blood on the Floor (1993-6)
>
> Another that came to mind: Philip Glass' soundtrack to North Star: Mark di
> Suvero, Sculptor.
>
> More Picassos: Harry Somers, Picasso Suite (1964); Virgil Thomson, Bugles
> and Birds a Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1940)
>
This last one I think you'll find is not connected to any of Picasso's
artworks, but is rather a musical "portrait" of the man. Thomson
did dozens of such portraits of friends and acquaintances, who
would "sit" for a portrait, which Thomson would then compose.
As long as I'm typing, I have another one to add, as well:
Peter Maxwell Davies, Time and the Raven, whose title is taken
from a painting by the Scottish artist John Bellany.
Jerry
Pete Kelly
Turnage.