# Music inspired by paintings or vice versa



## Musicforawhile (Oct 10, 2014)

The only one I can think of is Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead, Symphonic 
Poem Op. 29 inspired by Arnold Bocklin's 1886 painting of the same name:


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## DiesIraeCX (Jul 21, 2014)

Apparently, Mahler himself compared the first Nachtmusik movement of his 7th Symphony to one of Rembrandt's painting, "The Nightwatch", while it didn't directly inspire the music, I find the connection with the music and the art interesting, having just listened to Mahler's 7th for the first time recently.

"_Mahler, who described the movement in vague terms, compared it to Rembrandt's painting "The Night Watch" (below), though he did not intend to evoke the painting itself._" (From Wikipedia)









"_"Nocturnal Serenade" (below) by Jan Steen. This painting depicts an intimate serenade of the kind Mahler parodies in the second "Nachtmusik."_" (From Wikipedia)









http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symphony_No._7_(Mahler)


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## TitanisWalleri (Dec 30, 2012)

Three Boticelli Pictures by Respighi. Each of the three movements is inspired by one of Boticelli's paintings. My favorite movement (and painting) of the three is The Adoration of the Magi.


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## Blake (Nov 6, 2013)

Feldman's Rothko Chapel:


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

All the pieces from Pictures At An Exhibition are based on Victor Hartmann Paintings:


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

Mathis der Maler by Hindemith is based on a triptych by Mathias Grunewald.

I think Nuages from Debussy's three Nocturne's was inspired by a painting of Whistler(?)

Rachmaninoff's Prelude in B minor from the Opus 32 set was inspired by Böcklin's "The Return."

King Crimson wrote a song called "The Night Watch" in defense of Rembrandt's painting of the same name after a man slashed it with a knife in the early 1970s for political reasons: 

Shine, shine. The light of good works shine.
The watch before the city gates depicted in their prime
The golden light all grimy now, three hundred years have passed
The worthy captain and his squad of troopers standing fast …


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Gunther Schuller is one of those composers influenced by Klee


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## Manok (Aug 29, 2011)

The Dynamic Triptych Concerto by Vaughan Williams I do not believe was inspired by any one such piece of art rather than by the idea of 3 separate moments connected by something. If anyone knows for sure, I'd like to know, I tried using Mr. Google but he didn't have a response.


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## dgee (Sep 26, 2013)

Gunther Schuller wrote a set of pieces inspired by Paul Klee's paintings. Here is one:






Edit: beaten to it by Mr Bates above!


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## Alfacharger (Dec 6, 2013)

Musicforawhile said:


> The only one I can think of is Rachmaninoff's Isle of the Dead, Symphonic
> Poem Op. 29 inspired by Arnold Bocklin's 1886 painting of the same name:
> 
> View attachment 55104


Max Reger composed four tone poems based on Bocklin's paintings including the "isle of the Dead".


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## Jeff W (Jan 20, 2014)

Bohuslav Martinů wrote 'The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca'. He took inspiration from Piero della Francesca's 'The History of the True Cross'.


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## Mandryka (Feb 22, 2013)

Brian Ferneyhough's Transit was inspired by a woodcut of a mage. I have never been able to find an image of the picture though - can anyone help?


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

*Walton's Scapino* and *Portsmouth Point* overtures where inspired by these images:



















*Castelnouvo-Tedesco's 24 Caprichos de Goya* where inspired by Goya's series of etchings (I really like this work, the way he conveys these is pretty amazing, the Naxos disc below has all the images in its booklet, along with detailed explanations) and *Brett Dean* has done three caprichos for guitar too.


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

DiesIraeVIX said:


> Apparently, Mahler himself compared the first Nachtmusik movement of his 7th Symphony to one of Rembrandt's painting, "The Nightwatch", while it didn't directly inspire the music, I find the connection with the music and the art interesting, having just listened to Mahler's 7th for the first time recently.
> 
> "_Mahler, who described the movement in vague terms, compared it to Rembrandt's painting "The Night Watch" (below), though he did not intend to evoke the painting itself._" (From Wikipedia)


That is kind of funny because the Nachtwacht is not about the night at all, it is just dirty.


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## TitanisWalleri (Dec 30, 2012)

Night Ferry by Anna Clyne. She actually was the one who painted the picture, but still.


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I think that Bosch The Garden Of Earthly Delights inspired some Composers, but at present I can't remember which ones


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

Late romantic Swiss composer Hans Huber: Symphony No. 2 in E minor "Boecklin-Symphonie", inspired by paintings of Arnold Boecklin.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

No one has mentioned a vice versa yet (i.e. paintings inspired by music) as asked by the OP.

I'll begin with Kandinsky and Schoenberg:










Wassily Kandinsky - Impression III (Konzert)

Painted by the artist just after a concert (with Schoenberg's String Quartet Op.10 and Drei Klavierstueke Op.11) he attended in January 1911.

Here Schoenberg's Op.11 played by Pollini


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

I remain a long-time fan of the music of Spanish composer Leonardo Balada (b. 1933 in Barcelona) who for several years now has been a resident of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where he is Professor of Composition at Carnegie Mellon School of Music. Too, he is often performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. I heard the American premiere of his Sixth Symphony, the "Symphony of Sorrows", last season conducted by Maestro Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (now the late Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos) in Pittsburgh.
NAXOS has released a disc (8.557342) featuring Balada's "Guernica" (1966), based upon the famous anti-war painting by Pablo Piccaso.







The work is a brilliant orchestral display, to say the least.

Lesser known perhaps than Balada, Roger Bourland (born December 13, 1952) is an American composer, publisher, blogger, and a Professor of Music in the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music who has written a number of "art" inspired works including an orchestral piece titled "Jackson Pollock in Memoriam," (1978).
I first encountered Bourland's work on a disc titled _Collage_ and featuring his chamber piece "Seven Pollock Paintings," (1978) for flute, clarinet, soprano saxophone, bass clarinet, tam tam, violin, viola, cello, bass; duration: 17:00; Margun Music (1978); Associated Music Publishers (2002, New York, NY) (1979).









One of the paintings depicted in music by Bourland is the famous _Lavender Mist_: See/hear: https://prezi.com/8b8k_hzl_nsf/pollock-paintings-lavender-mist/


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

*Carl Nielsen's *Symphony no. II "The Four Temperaments", inspired by paintings he saw at a country inn in Zealand.


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## The nose (Jan 14, 2014)

Stravinsky's _A rake's Progress_ it's based on William Hogarth's serie of paintings with the same name.


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Some more:

*Liszt*: _Totentanz_ - inspired by frescoes in the Pisa Camposanto 




*George/Jorge Lopez*: _Landscape with Martyrdom_, for orchestra. After a Breughel landscape. Promoted by Michael Gielen 




*Serge Nigg*: _Hieronymus Bosch Symphony_

*Giselher Klebe*: _Die Zwitschermaschine_, for orchestra

*Lubos Fiser*: _15 Pictures after Dürers Apocalypse _




*Max von Schillings*: _Mona Lisa_, opera

*Sandor Veress*: _Hommage a Paul Klee_ 




*Flor Alpaerts*: _James Ensor Suite_

*Michael Berkeley*: _The Garden of Earthly Delights_

*Willem Mengelberg*: _Improvisations on Rembrandt Engravings _http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4512/Cult...4/Met-Mengelberg-en-Rembrandt-meer-mans.dhtml


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## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Manok said:


> The Dynamic Triptych Concerto by Vaughan Williams I do not believe was inspired by any one such piece of art rather than by the idea of 3 separate moments connected by something. If anyone knows for sure, I'd like to know, I tried using Mr. Google but he didn't have a response.


I believe you mean John Foulds´ Dynamic Triptych? According to this source, his Music Pictures for orchestra are inspired by a series of paintings 
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2006/Jun06/Foulds_Dynamic_629992.htm


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

SONNET CLV said:


> NAXOS has released a disc (8.557342) featuring Balada's "Guernica" (1966), based upon the famous anti-war painting by Pablo Piccaso.
> View attachment 55188


Is that actually a response to the painting, rather than a response to the atrocity, as the painting itself was?


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## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

SONNET CLV said:


> NAXOS has released a disc (8.557342) featuring Balada's "Guernica" (1966), based upon the famous anti-war painting by Pablo Piccaso.
> View attachment 55188





SimonNZ said:


> Is that actually a response to the painting, rather than a response to the atrocity, as the painting itself was?


Good question, SimonNZ.
According to the notes accompanying the CD, a commentary penned by Balada himself: "My composing _Guernica _came in 1966, when the New Orleans Philharmonic announced a reading of new orchestral works. The anti-Vietnam War demonstrations that year at Columbia University in New York were an added stimulus for me having attended meetings of protest at the MacMillan Theatre on that campus. Childhood, Picasso, Vietnam all came together and in two weeks with the brevity of a bullet shot, my composition was conceived and done. _Guernica_ became a turning-point in my output."

Further in the comments Balada says this: "...The twelve tone music I was hearing in New York proved extremely boring and intellectual to me. In consequence a relentless search for something that would satisfy my aesthetic vision followed, and the visual arts became my source of inspiration. From Rauschenberg to the happenings of the time and to Dali ... all helped me conceive my new strategy of sound."

Following Balada's notes, an anonymous commentator continues with the following: "_Guernica _was composed during the last two weeks of 1966 in New York City and was written as a protest against wars and a tribute to that mural. It is dedicated to Picasso."

Perhaps that helps answer your question.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

^Thanks for the info. I'll try to have a listen to the work.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

Franz Liszt: Hunnenschlacht (The Battle of the Huns) (1857)

The symphonic poem was inspired by a painting by the German painter Wilhelm von Kaulbach (1805-1874)










Wilhelm von Kaulbach: Die Hunnenschlacht

Here's Liszt symphonic poem:






London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bernard Haitink


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

My favourite contemporary painter, Gerhard Richter, created several abstracts inspired by the music of John Cage.

View attachment 55235


http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/richter-cage-1-6-l02818/image-292183


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

Mark-Anthony Turnage - Three Screaming Popes (after Bacon)

https://sp.yimg.com/ib/th?id=HN.608010126416872990&pid=15.1&P=0


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## omega (Mar 13, 2014)

*Debussy* was inspired by the famous woodcut print by Hokusai, _The Wave_








Which is why you have some Japanese harmonies in this symphonic poem.


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## GioCar (Oct 30, 2013)

^^^ by Hokusai, you mean...


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Piwikiwi said:


> That is kind of funny because the Nachtwacht is not about the night at all, it is just dirty.


Well, it is "Rembrandt dark," and the varnish has darkened over the years...

The title of the piece is, "*Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq,* [aka The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch.]"

http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/rembrandt-the-night-watch.html
"The Dutch Civic Guard 
Rembrandt's Night Watch is an example of a very specific type of painting that was exclusive to the Northern Netherlands, with the majority being commissioned in the city of Amsterdam. It is a group portrait of a company of civic guardsmen. The primary purpose of these guardsmen was to serve as defenders of their cities. As such, they were tasked with guarding gates, policing streets, putting out fires, and generally maintaining order throughout the city."


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## Piwikiwi (Apr 1, 2011)

PetrB said:


> Well, it is "Rembrandt dark," and the varnish has darkened over the years...
> 
> The title of the piece is, "*Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq,* [aka The Shooting Company of Frans Banning Cocq and Willem van Ruytenburch.]"
> 
> ...


The last part is technically correct but it is quite generous to those posing as the civic guardsmen; it is mostly rich merchants posing as guardsmen. This type of painting is called a "schuttersstuk" (Shooters Piece is the literal translation) and there are a lot them and most of them aren't very interesting. The thing that makes the Night Watch interesting is that it is atypical for a piece like this because it is quite dynamic instead of very stiff and imho dull.


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## norman bates (Aug 18, 2010)

Harrison Birtwistle was inspired by Bruegel and his "the triumph of time" for his work with the same title.


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## SimonNZ (Jul 12, 2012)

Can't quite make out which work Bosch is commenting on here:










edit: heh, following up on that I find this from The Guardian:

An enterprising blogger has recorded a piece of music hidden in Hieronymus Bosch's painting The Garden of Earthly Delights, bringing to life a series of notes that originally appeared on the backside of one of Bosch's sinners.

Posting on her Tumblr, a self-described "huge nerd" called Amelia explained that she and a friend had been examining a copy of Bosch's famous triptych, which was painted around the year 1500. "[We] discovered, much to our amusement," she wrote. "[a] 600-years-old butt song from Hell."

Once zoomed-in, the object of Amelia's interest is clear: Bosch left sheet music "written upon the posterior of one of the many tortured denizens of the rightmost panel of the painting".

"I decided to transcribe it into modern notation," Amelia explained, "assuming the second line of the staff is C, as is common for chants of this era ... The last few measures are kind of obscured but i tried my best."

The rest is history, really. Amelia posted a piano version of the torture-victim's backside hymnal. Someone else wrote some silly lyrics (key phrase: "we sing from our asses while burning in purgatory") and arranged it as choral chant. Soon, each post had received thousands of notes and reposts.

None of this could have been foreseen by Bosch, for whom The Garden Of Earthly Delights was probably a caution against the unending hazards of sin. While music and musical instruments are major motifs of his masterwork, which has long been on display in Madrid, these are often interpreted as symbols of pleasure, lust or the notoriously naughty habits of travelling minstrels.

http://www.theguardian.com/artandde...heet-music-hieronymus-bosch-triptych-recorded


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