# compositions that paint pictures/ are based off pictures



## wolfdream (Sep 27, 2013)

so i'm looking for compositions that had a goal of creating a musical picture of a person, place, other object, as well as compositions that are based of pictures or portraits.

this could be where the artist used a picture as a muse for a work or tried to paint the picture or portrait through the composition itself.

http://abstract.desktopnexus.com/wallpaper/970919/ this is a painting portrait, im looking for music that would try and do the same but musically instead of with visually.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

There's an entire genre, called tone poems, that seem to be what you are describing. Also, incidental music. I couldn't give you any kind of comprehensive list, off the top of my head, if this is indeed what you are after, but you can look them up easily enough  Debussy also did something sort of like what you seem to be asking.


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

I'll be Captain Obvious and bring up Musdorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition.


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## KenOC (Mar 7, 2011)

Isle of the Dead...


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## Manxfeeder (Oct 19, 2010)

Erik Satie's Sports et Divertessements does just that. The left side of the page is a picture, and the right side of the page is a musical depiction of the picture, with a running commentary underneath it.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

brotagonist said:


> There's an entire genre, called tone poems, that seem to be what you are describing. Also, incidental music. I couldn't give you any kind of comprehensive list, off the top of my head, if this is indeed what you are after, but you can look them up easily enough  Debussy also did something sort of like what you seem to be asking.


Alkan composed a few too. The Mad Woman By The Seashore can be heard as surf, if you force yourself to ignore the woman's plight.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

Hilltroll72 said:


> Alkan composed a few too. The Mad Woman By The Seashore can be heard as surf, if you force yourself to ignore the woman's plight.


That makes a powerful musical metaphor, one of the ravings of the madwoman and the roar of the surf becoming one.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Some examples; most of these works are on you-tube:

_Max Reger_:"Böcklin Suite" for orchestra

_Hans Huber_:"Böcklin-Sinfonie" for orchestra

_Carl Nielsen_:"2.Symphony, 4 Temperaments" (the primitive paintings inspiring this symphony haven´t been identified, but it is a well-known painterly theme)

_Franz Liszt_:"Totentanz" (on the fresco cycle at the Pisa Camposanto)

_Willem Mengelberg_:"Rembrandt Improvisations" (specifications here, but in Dutch http://www.deraa.nl/Concerten/Archief/EtsenRembrandt.html)

_Enrique Granados_:"Goyescas", piano pieces (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goyescas)

_Serge Nigg_:"Symphonie, Jerome Bosch" (http://brahms.ircam.fr/composers/composer/2401/)

_Bohuslav Martinu_:"Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frescoes_of_Piero_della_Francesca

_Ottorino Respighi_:"Trittico Botticelliano" for orchestra

_John McCabe_:"Chagall Windows" for orchestra

_Peter Maxwell Davies_: "5 Klee Pictures" for Orchestra

_Giselher Klebe_:"Die Zwitschermaschine", after Klee, for orchestra (a good piece)

_Sandor Veress_:"Hommage a Paul Klee" for orchestra


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## hreichgott (Dec 31, 2012)

KenOC said:


> Isle of the Dead...


I see your Isle of the Dead and raise you one Isle Joyeuse


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## spradlig (Jul 25, 2012)

There is one Incredibly Obvious example of music inspired by paintings. I've heard the music a million times, but I'm curious about the paintings. Does anyone know if images of the paintings are posted online somewhere?

I could probably Google this and find it within 10 minutes or so, but a human posting here might provide some additional information or insight.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

Not inspired by a particular work of art, but musical painting nonetheless: Beethoven's Pastoral symphony and Vivaldi's Four Seasons.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Hindemiths' Mathis der Maler has not been mentioned yet.


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Just to reverse the question, it is also interesting when painters try to convey sounds or music in their art. Kandinsky tried to do that.









I've heard it suggested that this "Improvisation with Cannons" somehow reflects Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

spradlig said:


> There is one Incredibly Obvious example of music inspired by paintings. I've heard the music a million times, but I'm curious about the paintings. Does anyone know if images of the paintings are posted online somewhere?
> 
> I could probably Google this and find it within 10 minutes or so, but a human posting here might provide some additional information or insight.


if you are thinking of the Mussorgsky set, I´ve seen various blogs etc. dealing with the subject. The Wikipedia article has some links http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictures_at_an_Exhibition


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

spradlig said:


> There is one Incredibly Obvious example of music inspired by paintings. I've heard the music a million times, but I'm curious about the paintings. Does anyone know if images of the paintings are posted online somewhere?
> 
> I could probably Google this and find it within 10 minutes or so, but a human posting here might provide some additional information or insight.


In this case Wiki has enough to be worth reading.


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## LordBlackudder (Nov 13, 2010)

__
https://flic.kr/p/7769158786


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

J. Haydn's Creation and the Seasons are full of tone-painting. Take, for example, the Representation of Chaos, which describes the 'nothing' before the creation of the world (from a biblical perspective). Both oratorios have musical depictions of a grand sunrise, the Creation has musical depictions of animals, whereas the Seasons has a part which musically describes a hunting dog looking for its prey, etc. Lots of good stuff in there .


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## Prodromides (Mar 18, 2012)

Van Gogh's _Starry Night_ ...










... was the inspiration for Henri Dutilleux's _Timbres Espace Mouvement_.










And here's another opus inspired by Paul Klee by Gunther Schuller:


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## Winterreisender (Jul 13, 2013)

Many of F. Couperin's pieces have programmatic-sounding titles, the most famous example being "The Mysterious Barricades." What exactly these barricades are is anyone's guess. I suppose part of the fun is trying to work out what, if anything, the piece is supposed to depict. Wikipedia offers interpretations ranging from the barricades "between life and death" to "women's underwear, or chastity belts." Still a beautiful piece:


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Some more:

_Gloria Coates_: Hommage a Van Gogh, for orchestra 




_Francis Poulenc_: Le Travail du Peintre 




_Lubos Fiser_: 15 Pictures after Dürers Apocalypse, for orchestra (I don´t mean this 



; a very poor recording here 



)

_Georges Auric_: Le Peintre et Son Modele (quite boring!) 




_Reinhold Gliere_: Zaporozhy Cossacks (probably after Repin)


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## HaydnBearstheClock (Jul 6, 2013)

Georg Philipp Telemann's Water Music is filled with tone-painting, as is Vivaldi's Four Seasons.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

henry brant - quombex
castelnuovo tedesco - caprichos de goya
gunther schuller - 7 studies on themes of paul klee


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

What about Deems Taylor's "The Portrait Of a Lady" ?


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