# The museum ("Orchestra" Edition)



## itywltmt

Related threads: 
http://www.talkclassical.com/14066-music-paintings.html
http://www.talkclassical.com/14606-visual-art-classical-literature.html#post195975
http://www.talkclassical.com/14244-favorite-painter-s.html

En français: http://itywltmt.blogspot.com/2011/08/le-musee-version-orchestre.html

_(This one came out a day early. I must've punched the wrong date. oh well...)_

Friday's montage on ITYWLTMT will present three piano works inspired by paintings, and I thought I would spend some time on the Tuesday blog talking about orchestral music inspired by paintings.

To begin, here is a somewhat cheesy montage I found on _YouTube _that sets paintings to music…






I chose three works for today's post, and they are all inspired by painters and paintings.

*Mathis der Maler* (Matthias the Painter) is an opera by *Paul Hindemith *which focuses on the life of *Matthias Grünewald*, an actual historical figure who flourished during the Protestant Reformation, and whose art was an inspiration to many creative figures living in the early 20th century.









(Matthias Grünewald - Half length portrait of a man with a pinfeather looking up, 1529)
_In the past often regarded as a self-portrait of Grünewald, but according to the most recent research rather a study of the writing John the Evangelist on Patmos_​
Hindemith composed his *Mathis der Maler symphony* in 1934, before he had completed work on the opera. We have a perfofmance of the work featuring the Berlin Philharmonic under the direction of the composer.

*Aldo Rafael Forte* was a long-time member of the United States Air Force, the last 16 years spent as Composer/Arranger with the _Air Combat Command Heritage of America Band _based out of Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, renamed USAF Heritage of America Band about 10 years ago. Forte wrote a number of challenging wind band works for his charges, one of his most ambitious being *Impressionist Prints*, inspired by six Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters. The work consists of six contrasting sections depicting the work of the six painters. Impressionist Prints is dedicated to Major Larry H. Lang and the USAF Heritage of America Band. The group premiered and recorded the composition in October 2000, and was awarded First Place in the 2001 National Federation of Music Clubs American Music in the United States Armed Forces Composition Competition.

Here are a couple of the paintings depicted in Forte's work:









(Claude Monet - Le Parlement, Effet de Brouillard, 1903)​








(Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec - Au Moulin Rouge, 1892)​
*Isle of the Dead* (German: Die Toteninsel) is the best known painting of Swiss Symbolist *Arnold Böcklin *. Prints of the work were very popular in central Europe in the early 20th century - Freud, Lenin, and Clemenceau all had prints of it in their offices.









(Arnold Böcklin - Die Toteninsel, c. 1880)​
*Rachmaninoff *wrote a tone poem inspired by the painting, and it is presented here today as well.

*PLAYLIST DETAILS​*
*Paul HINDEMITH (1895-1963)*
_Symphony: Mathis der Maler_ (1934)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Paul Hindemith conducting
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL609CB592675182FA

*Aldo Rafael FORTE (*1953)*
_Impressionist Prints - six masters in two galleries_ (2000)
USAF Heritage of America Band, Maj. Larry H. Lang conducting
http://www.heritageofamericaband.af.mil/recordings/impressions.asp
(Scroll down to nos. 11-16 on that page)

*Sergey RACHMANINOFF (1873-1943)*
_Die Toteninsel_ (The Isle of the Dead), Op. 29
Wiener Philharmoniker, Valery Gergiev conducting
http://www.howcast.com/videos/486471-Rachmaninov-Isle-Of-the-Dead

*August 26 2011, "I Think You Will Love This Music Too" will be adding a new montage "The museum (Piano Edition)" to our Pod-O-Matic podcast. Read our English and French commentary August 26 on the ITYWLTMT Blogspot blog.*


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