art of the muses

weekly pairings of music and art by vesal

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Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

Maya Angelou

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tornatore, cinema paradiso, 1988, film stills

Paired with ennio morricone's tema d'amore.

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tema d'amore (ennio morricone)

Listen.

What makes a film piece like this one so memorable and everlasting is something that goes beyond the musical beauty of its score--for me, it is the music's relationship with the film and how well it can (almost mysteriously) add to the moving image's thematic and emotional truth.  The main theme to Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso is so special because it does exactly that.  And if this work doesn't pluck at your heart strings, I don't know what will.

For some more serious plucking, please just watch the film.  It is a story of Toto, an orphaned young boy from Sicily, who befriends Alfredo, the local cinema projectionist.  Through their touching relationship, we see Toto grow and learn important life lessons around dreams, love, heartbreak, and friendship.  There are so many memorable quotes from this movie but I had to pick one out:

Alfredo: Living here day by day, you think it's the center of the world.  You believe nothing will change.  Then you leave: a year, two years.  When you come back, everything's changed.  The thread's broken.  What you came to find isn't there.  What was yours is gone.  You have to go away for a long time... many years... before you can come back and find your people.  The land where you were born.  But now, no.  It's not possible.  Right now, you're blinder than I am.

Toto: Who said that?  Gary Cooper?  James Stewart?  Henry Fonda?  Eh?

Alfredo: No, Toto.  Nobody said it.  This time it's all me.  Life isn't like the movies.  Life... is much harder.

Bottom line: this ultra-nostalgic film will make you laugh and cry many times over.

I paired the music with stills from two pivotal scenes from the film and I won't ruin it for those who haven't seen the film yet.  I had a philosophical / creative debate about whether I should pair it with the film or not.  Given the fact that the music was bespoke for the film, I could not justify what would really just become either a complete mispair or a substandard pairing at best.  Going forward with film music, I expect to do the same.

P.S. Because I love this soundtrack so darn much, I couldn't help but drop in another little thing to listen to right here.

[artofthemusesweekly]

The more I think about it, the more I realize there is nothing more artistic than to love others.

Vincent van Gogh

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NASA, Go For Launch!, 2010, time-lapse video, (kennedy space center)

Please mute the video.

Paired with moderat's seamonkey. 

[artofthemusesweekly]

seamonkey (moderat)

Listen.

One of the best collaborative efforts (at least, that I've listened to) from the Berlin left-field techno circuit, Moderat comes from the joint efforts of Apparat and Modeselektor.  There'll be more Moderat pairings to come, but this one seemed to be a good place to start.  

Seamonkey begins ominously, with a kind of industrial, countdown-clock beat that fits well with a time-lapse clip of an impending launch into space and the unknown.  The quality of this beat alone is enough to evoke the claustrophobia one might feel being "trapped" within the confines of Discovery, the first shuttle to launch since the Columbia disaster, which killed all seven crew members.

Moderat methodically knits in new and complicated layers in a spatially-expansive track, while the shuttle undergoes the many steps and procedures required before a launch.  The unexpected and jarring sounds that are slipped in remind me of the hallucinatory effects -- "did you hear that?" -- that no doubt inflict the mind of a few people thrown out of earth's atmosphere for what may feel like forever.  The end result is an uneasy, but fascinating mix between mechanical energy and astral sounds that reveal the lonelier, darker side of a shuttle in outer space.

[artofthemusesweekly]

Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.

John Cage

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pierrot lunaire op. 21, no. 8: nacht (schoenberg)

Listen. 

This Schoenberg / Munch pairing has been made with the help of featured contributor Alex Bancu.

Probably not one for the faint of heart, this atonal piece is #8 of the 21 poems that make up Pierrot Lunaire.  Like the rest of the work, Nacht is delivered as a melodrama, a combination of music and dialogue.

You'll quickly see why its 1912 premiere in Berlin generated a good deal of criticism, particularly if you listen to the entire collection of poems.  And you'll also see why we paired it with Edvard Munch's The Scream.

Why were the sounds so harsh and atonal?  Schoenberg explains that:

"If they were musical, not a single one would give a damn about the words.  Instead, they would go away whistling the tunes"

April 29th will be the last day, at least for a while, that you'll get to see The Scream at the MoMA.

P.S. The link to the song also has a great accompanying video... after you've enjoyed it with The Scream, of course.

P.P.S. Schoenberg was a painter himself. His work could've easily be paired up with his music. See here.

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munch, the scream, 1895, pastel on board (temporary exhibit at MoMa, nyc) Paired with schoenberg's pierrot lunaire op. 21, no. 8: nacht.

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A man paints with his brains and not with his hands.

Michelangelo

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snowy weekend special!

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"flute quartet in d-major, kv 285, II. adagio" (mozart)

Listen.

This was Einstein's favourite flute quartet and so, if you buy into "the Mozart effect," then you might want to start listening to it too.

Mozart composed this work on December 25th, 1777, at the age of 21.  He had composed it, along with two other quartets, in order to make 200 gulden (old German / Dutch gold coin) and extend his stay in Mannheim.  As with most Mozart stories, there is also a passionate, but short-lived, romance.

At under 3 minutes, it's a short movement, but one with an elegant, simple melody that will make sure it stays in your head for quite a bit longer.  Its ethereal quality, gentleness and delicate pizzicati, makes it a longing serenade... perhaps one sung in secret.

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fragonard, the progress of love: the meeting, 1771-1772, oil on canvas (the frick collection, new york city) Paired with mozart's flute quartet in d-major, kv 285 (II. adagio).

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this is the first pairing of many to come. hope you enjoy.

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"pavane for a dead princess" (ravel)

Listen to the arrangement for piano & violin.

I moved into my new apartment today and woke up to my roommate rehearsing Ravel's Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a dead princess) on his double bass along with a piano accompanist.  More commonly heard in its orchestral arrangement, the double bass, distinctly in the foreground, offered a real warmth and tenderness to this piece.

The pavane was a stately dance from Spain.  It is said Ravel's piece pays homage to the Infanta Margarita, daughter of King Philip IV of Spain, who commissioned Velázquez to paint Las meninas.  The orchestral version linked below (but listen first to the very beautiful piano and violin version above) shows us the amount of colour and fullness Ravel poured over the piece.  However, I really encourage everyone to listen to Edgar Meyer's version on double bass and piano for a more subdued and fragile interpretation of this wonderful work (ask me for it because you won't find it online).

I hope you enjoy listening to it with the Velázquez.  And let me know which arrangement you like most.

More listening:

Listen to an arrangement for a quartet (piano, violin, flute, clarinet).

Listen to the orchestral arrangement.

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velázquez, las meninas, c. 1656, oil on canvas (museo nacional del prado, madrid) Paired with ravel's pavane for a dead princess.