# Classical Music Inspired by the Visual Arts



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

My first thought was Morton Feldman, part of the New York scene and friend of many artists there. His work "Rothko Chapel" is self-explanatory.


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## eugeneonagain (May 14, 2017)

Do the paintings get hung on those empty brown boards?




I'm joking.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

eugeneonagain said:


> Do the paintings get hung on those empty brown boards? I'm joking.


I just don't understand what you're driving at here. It must be too subtle (and germane) a point for me to grasp. Perhaps you should repeat it again?


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## Tchaikov6 (Mar 30, 2016)

Pictures at an Exhibition is probably the most well known example.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Respighi: Three Botticelli Pictures, Church Windows
Rachmaninoff: Isle of the Dead


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

A virtually unknown example is Mengelberg's Etches by Rembrandt.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

- Hindemith, Symphony 'Mathis der Maler'
- Martinu, Fresques de Piero della Francesca
- Liszt, Totentanz


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

eugeneonagain said:


> Do the paintings get hung on those empty brown boards?
> 
> I'm joking.


I'm not: do they?


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

No, they _are_ the paintings.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

- Reger, Böcklin Suite

and some lesser known stuff:
- Poulenc, Le Travail du Peintre, song cycle
- John McCabe, Chagall Windows, for orchestra
- Serge Nigg, Hieronymus Bosch Symphony, for orchestra
- Friedrich Bruk, Chagall Symphony, for tenor & orchestra
- Max von Schillings, Mona Lisa, opera


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

Art Rock said:


> A virtually unknown example is Mengelberg's Etches by Rembrandt.


Actually, I've heard of _both_ Mengelberg _and_ Rembrandt. It's your putting of them together that throws me for a loop!

On the same obscure side, though, there is one of my favorite modern orchestral works: Roger Bourland's _Seven Pollock Paintings_.









No, it isn't paintings of fish!















That's something I do in my spare time. Catch 'em, paint 'em, clean 'em, eat 'em.

Roger Bourland's 1978 composition (timing in at 18:40) features tone pictures of _Lavender Mist_, _The Wooden Horse_, _Eyes in the Heat_, _Drawing 1950_, _Peacocks Afraid of the Color_, _The Deep_, and _The Saint_.

I suspect most everyone knows _Lavender Mist_.









I still recall my awe at seeing the original. There seemed to be so much depth and color behind those tangling strands of paint.

However, I do probably prefer paintings that depict something real, like Pollock's _The Wooden Horse_ and _The Deep_.















If that ain't a horse or a deep, I don't know what is!

Bourland's music is shimmering and dark, or angular and colorful, depending upon the painting he's depicting. My copy of his music is from the above shown disc titled _Collage_ on the G M Recordings label. It was released in 1986. And the companion pieces are interesting, too. A disc worth exploring: GM 2008D Digital. Gunther Schuller conducts!


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## Botschaft (Aug 4, 2017)

joen_cph said:


> No, they _are_ the paintings.


How unfortunate.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

joen_cph said:


> No, they _are_ the paintings.


That's a black & white photo of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, not a reproduction of the paintings. Do I detect mockery?


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## Guest (Mar 8, 2019)

I can't give a direct visual link, but I would like to propose *Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto* as being somehow linked to the prevalent idea in his time of the "Orpheus" myth. From other primary sources, we read that Orpheus in pictorial representations in Vienna (and Europe generally, I suppose) was quite the rage.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

This is a late Rothko painting, below the photo of him.

For the uninformed, you must remember that these paintings are very large, and must been seen in person, and in proper light. You must also be familiar with his entire body of work as a succession, even if only by book. Some things to keep in mind: many of these paintings have an anthropomorphic "presence" which is striking. And this was before the internet, when people did this thing called "painting."


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

Gunther Schuller: Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

Ralph Vaughan Williams' Job: A Masque for Dancing was inspired by drawings of the devil.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

larold said:


> ...*photos *of the devil.


:devil:...............


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Debussy drew inspiration from some visual artists such as Gustave Moreau, J.M.W. Turner and James McNeill Whistler among others, (he was less interested in the work of the Impressionist painters, probably why he didn't like the term applied to his music).

_La Mer_, _Nuages_ from _Nocturnes_ and _Des Pas sur la neige_ from the _Preludes_ for piano are examples of pieces that took inspiration from Turner and Whistler.

_Children's Corner_ and the ballet _La Boite a joujoux_ were inspired by the English book illustrator Arthur Rackham.

Debussy was also very interested in Asian art and artifacts in general, for example the artist Hokusai (whose woodblock print _The Great Wave off Kanagawa_ was reproduced on the published score of _La Mer_ at the composers request). Debussy's _Sonata for Flute, Viola and Harp_ has an aesthetic that is somewhat reminiscent of this artistic style to my ears.


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## tdc (Jan 17, 2011)

Debussy's _Hommage à Rameau_ from his _Images_ for piano has a quality that reminds me of Gustave Moreau, ancient yet simultaneously modern.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Harrison Birtwistle - The triumph of time
inspired by Pieter Bruegel the elder


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

- Rautavaara, 6th Symphony, 'Vincentiana'
- Gloria Coates, 9th Symphony, 'Homage to Van Gogh'
- Stravinsky, 'The Rakes' Progress'
- Giselher Klebe, 'Die Zwitschermaschine' (Klee)
- Parsadanian, 2nd Symphony, 'Martyros Saryan'


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

de Meij - Dutch masters suite

inspired by Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, Vermeer’s Love Letter and Steen’s Prinsjesdag.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

- Lubos Fiser:"15 Pictures after Dürers Apocalyse" for orchestra
- Manfred Gurlitt:"Goya Symphony"
- Alexander Moyzes:"Partita for Master Paul from Levoca"


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## SixFootScowl (Oct 17, 2011)

eugeneonagain said:


> Do the paintings get hung on those empty brown boards?
> 
> I'm joking.


No paintings. Just the boards. John Cage's 4'33" art gallery! :lol:


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

SONNET CLV said:


> However, I do probably prefer paintings that depict something real, like Pollock's _The Wooden Horse_ and _The Deep_.
> 
> View attachment 114076
> View attachment 114077
> ...


I believe (I can't remember where I heard this but it makes sense: I hope its true) Pollock started those paintings as a more figurative representation of some jazz music he was listening to and then make them more abstract ... but the work's "structure" is rhythmical. I also believe that Pollock's teacher, Thomas Hart Benton, had an opposite approach but was also keen to respond to music (not jazz in his case, I think) - he would start with abstract representations of rhythm and then slowly develop the pictures as very figurative representations with all sorts of people, many recognisable, and scenes. The underlying "rhythmic" structure helps the potentially chaotic pictures to hold together.


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