The Musical Tapestry - Music and Visual Art

[Transcribed from an in-class writing assignment]

Visual art and music share many similarities and are simultaneously contrasted by stark differences. Music is a performance-based art, while visual arts like sculpting, painting, and drawing, are static and unmoving. This might seem like it sharply separates the two arts, however visual art is brought to life by the observer similarly to the way music is brought to life by the performer (and listener). 


Through presentation and organization, a painting draws an observer's focus to elements chosen by the crafty artist. This is akin to the way that dynamics, timbre, and the orchestration draw the listener's ear to musical elements of the crafty composer's choice. Paintings are like musical snapshots--they are akin to one "musical moment,"one beat,  to continue with the comparison.


At the same time, it's slightly more complicated than that. A painting can represent more ideas than one beat of music because whole forms can be represented in an instant in a painting, while it may take a whole phrase (of several measures) for music to complete an organized, whole thought. I think this is perhaps a better comparison; the painting is akin to a musical unit that, although frozen in time, can convey complex ideas the way a whole passage of music could.


The observer of art has time to explore the meaning of the painting, as his or her eyes are drawn to certain aspects and interpret naturally (consciously and subconsciously). Ostensibly, there is one main point, a central motif or theme to a painting, which is the main point that the artist wishes to convey. Typically, there is also supportive, secondary material that reinforces the point. 


I think you can see where this is going. The musical phrase typically has a primary point--the melody--and secondary, supportive points--harmony--that reinforce the melody. But, how do the two arts form their points? Make their statements?


First, and of chief importance, are shapes. Visual artists craft forms (i.e., meaningful elements) with lines and shading. Discrete, often linear elements combine to form a shapes, which in turn combine to create forms. For example, a picture of a dog is comprised of many lines which form shapes--circles or ovals for the head and body, for example. When the shapes are put together, a whole form is represented.


A similar technique is used in music, where you have, essentially, the same tools: shapes and lines. The movement of a melody forms a pattern in our mind that we pick up on, just like in visual art. Just as we would notice steep ascending lines in a painting, we notice the contours of a melody. Does it jaggedly rise? Fall slowly? Bounce up and down haphazardly?This is especially true, I think, in improvisational music, where clear outlining of shapes is quite common. Additionally, we have whole shapes represented in music as well: chords. Every  aspect of a chord contributes to its shape in our sonic world: its inversion, the distance between its notes, and the specific voicing.


Visual art shares another critical similarity with music, and that is color. As you know, colors make visual elements distinct and beautiful. By adding color to a black-and-white painting, one adds another layer of organization and meaning. Visual contrasts in colors add drama, tension, tranquility, excitement, and many other emotions.


In music, our colors are pitches and the relationships between pitches (i.e., keys). The most apparent example is in the subtle (sometimes not so subtle) changes to one's perception of musical color as the key dramatically switches, as in a direct modulation. Suddenly, different notes are accented, and there is a new central color to which all other colors are contrasted.


Keys affect my perception of the brightness or darkness of a piece of music. For example, during John Coltrane's version of "My Favorite Things," (originally from The Sound of Music) there is a long vamp and piano solo over two minor chords, e and f#. At the ideal moment, pianist McCoy Tyner changes to an E major chord, and the sensation is of the sun coming out from behind the clouds. Where there was darkness, suddenly there is light.


Music has one crucial element that is seemingly difficult to compare to visual art, and that is rhythm. One of the most important and defining aspects of a musical work, rhythm would seem at first hard to conceptualize in a non-musical setting.

Starry Night. Click for bigger.

It's visual analog lies in the organization of the various elements of a visual work. One observes art subconsciously at the fastest possible rate that the brain can observe art, which, in a way, gives the piece a tempo. The combination of elements, the size of the shapes and the way that the shapes interlock and interweave, can thus create a rhythm, with larger, bulkier elements taking longer to understand, and having a longer rhythmic value. 

Obviously, complex meaningful fine art is quite complex rhythmically and is harder to interpret in a clear-cut way. But, tell me you look at Van Gogh's "Starry Night" and don't see movement and rhythm (albeit, a spacey impressionist rhythm).


And, really, "Starry Night" is a great example for everything talked about here. The colors, lines, shapes, and movement are a snapshot, an encapsulation of an experience and are complete, just like in a well constructed musical idea. I would like to explore thinking of and writing music visually--perhaps there could be some interesting results.