Newsletter for music lovers who want to gain confidence in and explore their inner musician.

Drawing Down The Music

Music affects me keenly and intensely. I am always looking for ways to experience music on a deeper level; ways to bring the aural and visual together, for example.

Have you noticed that we often describe music, an aural art form, using visual descriptors? We talk about the texture created by a particular instrument group. Or perhaps the color a particular key generates in our mind's eye. For me, major keys tend to suggest bright colors, compared to more subdued colors of the minor keys. And then there is the shape of the music. We describe the phrasing and the form in physical terms.

The natural extension of describing music in visual terms is to draw it out! That's what today's ezine will show you how to do.

Pictures At An Exhibition

Do you know the story of Mussorgsky's composition, Pictures At An Exhibition? He wrote this suite in honor of his artist friend, Viktor Hartmann, who died suddenly at the age of 39. The stunned Russian art community organized an exhibit of over 400 pieces of Hartman's work. After viewing the collection, Mussorgsky composed Pictures in six short weeks.

There are other examples of musical compositions inspired by art. Franz Liszt wrote Hunnenschlacht (The Battle of The Huns) based on art of the same name by von Kaulbach. Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky were no strangers to this practice. The more contemporary composer, Stephen Sondheim, wrote the musical, Sunday in The Park With George inspired by Seurat's 19th century painting Sunday Afternoon on The Island of Grand Jatte.

Music-Inspired Art

And what about the reverse? That is, art that is inspired by music. There is plenty of that too. Searching for examples of music-inspired art (MIA), I found the RedBubble website. They have a whole section of the site devoted to MIA. That's where I saw this painting by Susan Kimball, Dream Mambo that she drew while listening to a recording of Nica's Dream by Horace Silver.

Making Music Art

This morning, I listened to Branford Marsalis' Creation cd. This 2001 release is a beguiling collection of music by French composers. Marsalis performs on soprano and alto saxophones with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. I got out my sketch pad, colored pencils and ink pens; and began to draw while listening to Darius Milhaud's La Création du Monde as performed by Marsalis and Orpheus.

As I listened to the opening sounds by Marsalis' alto saxophone, I let my pen glide across the page. As the music crescendoes and jumps in greater intervals, my pen reacts. The trumpets and percussion enter and the jazzy theme is developed. Some of my pen markings are abstract, other marks resemble objects in the world.

I listened and drew through two hearings of the seventeen and a half minute piece. On the first listen, I used pens of various point sizes. Second time through, only colored pencils were in my hands.

Surprise Learning

What a fantastic way to listen to a piece of music! What started out as an exercise linking art and music became an enjoyable way to learn. While focusing solely on the act of drawing, the music seeped deep into my soul. The various themes of the music came to life before my eyes.

The flowing "birth" music at the start shows up as curving parallel lines. The music intensifies and a colorful volcano-like structure appears in my drawing. Then feathery phrases from the alto and lower strings manifest feathers on my drawing. A musical uproar produces what could be seen as a cityscape, complete with a sax player under a streetlamp!

Go Deep

Is there a song or piece of music that is on your mind? Do you wake up with phrases from a song on your lips or a melody in your ear? That song is a good candidate for this drawing exercise.

• Draw out your song using different media; crayons, acrylic paints, or a lump of clay.
• Divide your paper into equal-sized grids and draw each 30 seconds (or other appropriate time period) in each grid square.
• Create a drawing in the morning and compare it to a drawing made in the evening of the same song.

What other ways can you think of to experience music more deeply? I'd love to hear from you and see any art you create. Contact me via email or share your comments on my blog.