Music Inspired by Visual Art

Monday August 16 - 2pm hour

There's a painting that hangs in the Louvre Museum called The Embarkation for Cythera.  It shows a Greek island that was the legendary birthplace of Venus, the goddess of love.  The painting portrays happy couples surrounded by flying cupids.  That painting inspired Claude Debussy as he composed L'Isle Joyeuse, or The Joyful Island.  He wrote the piece for piano, and later a colleague made a sweeping orchestration.  At the beginning, the music seems to portray Cupid's arrow and the fluttering of his wings.

L'Isle Joyeuse
by Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918) French

The Embarkation for Cythera
by Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684 - 1721) French
Learn more from the Louvre Museum

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Tuesday August 17 - 9am hour

Victor Hartmann was a Russian artist and architect who passed away suddenly in 1873. The following year, an exhibition of his work took place in St. Petersburg. His friend Modest Mussorgsky attended the show and was inspired to write a composition about the images. Mussorgsky found it very easy to create the work. He said, "Ideas, melodies, come to me of their own accord. I can hardly manage to put it all down on paper fast enough." Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition was written for solo piano, but nearly a half-century later, Maurice Ravel created an orchestral version.

Pictures at an Exhibition
by Modest Mussorgsky (1839 - 1881) Russian

Paintings and drawings
by Viktor Hartmann (1834 - 1873) Russian
Learn more from the Jacksonville Symphony
Learn more from Abstracted Reality

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Wednesday August 18 - 8am hour

Alessandro Botticelli was an Italian Renaissance artist of the fifteenth century. Many of his paintings hang in a gallery in Florence, Italy, which Ottorino Respighi visited in 1927. Three of Botticelli's pictures in particular appealed to him: Spring, Adoration of the Magi and The Birth of Venus. Respighi composed this work for chamber orchestra inspired by those paintings. In the middle movement, Adoration of the Magi, you’ll hear the tune "O Come, O Come, Emanuel."

Three Botticelli Pictures
by Ottorino Respighi (1879 - 1936) Italian

Spring
by Alessandro Botticelli (c. 1445 - 1510) Italian
Learn more about Spring from the Uffizi Gallery

Adoration of the Magi
by Alessandro Botticelli (c. 1445 - 1510) Italian
Learn more about The Adoration of the Magi from the Virtual Uffizi

The Birth of Venus
by Alessandro Botticelli (c. 1445 - 1510) Italian
Learn more about The Birth of Venus from the Uffizi Gallery

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Thursday August 19 - 4pm hour

William Grant Still found inspiration in the work of three African American visual artists from the Harlem Renaissance as he composed this suite for violin and piano. The first movement was Still's response to a sculpture of an African dancer, and the music is fast and vigorous. The second piece was inspired by an image of a Black mother and her child, and it has a gentle melody like a lullaby. And the final movement was in response to a bust of an African American youth, and the music is jazzy and jaunty.

Suite for Violin and Piano
by William Grant Still (1895 - 1978) American

African Dancer
by Richmond Barthé (1901 - 1989) American
Learn more about African Dancer at the Whitney Museum of American Art

Mother and Child
by Sargent Johnson (1888 - 1967) American
Learn more about Mother and Child at Treadway 20th Century Art & Design

Gamin
by Augusta Savage (1892 - 1962) American
Learn more about Gamin at the Smithsonian American Art Museum

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Friday August 20 - 8am hour

Max Reger was a German composer of the early twentieth century, and he admired the work of the Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin. There's a painting called Playing in the Waves that shows some mythological creatures in the ocean among huge waves, and it's hard to tell if they're having fun or drowning. Reger was inspired to compose this lighthearted scherzo with shimmering strings and playful rhythms.

Playing in the Waves from Four Tone Poems after Arnold Böcklin
by Max Reger (1873 - 1916) German

Playing in the Waves
by Arnold Böcklin (1827 - 1901) Swiss
Learn more about Playing in the Waves at Sartle

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Saturday August 21 - 3pm hour

Eduard Grutzner was a German artist who specialized in paintings of the fictional character Falstaff and also pictures of monks drinking beer. He lived in Munich where his neighbor was Franz Lehar. Hanging on the wall above Lehar's piano was one of Grutzner's paintings of Falstaff. Lehar dedicated this waltz to Grutzner "in sincerest admiration."

Grutzner Waltz
by Franz Lehar (1870 - 1948) Austrian

Paintings of Falstaff and beer drinking monks
by Eduard Grutzner (1846 - 1925) German
Learn more about Eduard Grutzner at AskArt

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Sunday August 22 - 1pm hour

There's a city on the southern coast of England that has a bad reputation. It's called Portsmouth Point, and there's a famous picture of it by Thomas Rowlandson that shows a tavern filled to overflowing and people fighting in the street. William Walton was inspired by that picture to compose this concert overture, and it's full of lively and vigorous music that matches the behavior of the people in the drawing.

Portsmouth Point Overture
by William Walton (1902 - 1983) English

Portsmouth Point
by Thomas Rowlandson (1757 - 1827) English
Learn more about Portsmouth Point at the Royal Collection Trust