“Art is not an end in itself, but a means of addressing humanity.”
Modest Mussorgsky
As philosopher Richard Wollheim says, art is “one of the most elusive of the traditional problems of human culture.” In its simplest manifestation, art is a form of communication that serves as a vehicle for the expression of emotions and ideas. As ideas and beliefs are culturally specific and constantly changing over time, there really is no generally agreed definition of what constitutes art. That being said, the classical branches of the visual arts are identified as painting, sculpture and architecture. Literature and poetry are considered part of the humanities or as one of the arts, while music, alongside theatre, film and dance belong to the performing arts. In this section you will discover not only specific explorations of individual art forms, but also a more detailed probing of the relationship between the visual arts and music, including painting and music, sculpture and music and architecture and music. Originally, poetry and music were treated as a unity, but gradually they have become more independent. Nevertheless, the two art forms have never forgotten their shared genetic makeup, and been intertwined for millennia. Art and music have engaged in a dynamic relationship that reveals a diverse range of human activity intended to be appreciated for their beauty.
American composer John Harbison (b. 1938) was commissioned to write a piece for radio station WGUC (Cincinnati) for their general manager, Ann Santos, for the Cincinnati Symphony’s principal flautist, Randall Bowman. The premiere of the work with Bowman was in
Carlos Simon: The Block In 1971, American artist Romare Bearden looked out the window of his friend Albert Murray’s Lenox Avenue apartment and was inspired to create an epic narrative out of something that was very familiar and ordinary: a
Following the victory of Spain’s Nationalist party in the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and the rule of fascist Franciso Franco, the orphans of the dead Republican fighters were sent out of the country. The USSR, a support of the Republican
In 1895, Edvard Grieg came across the book Haugtussa (The Mountain Maid) by Arne Gaborg. He immediately was fire and flame writing to his friend Julius Röntgen, “In the last few days I have been occupied with a very peculiar
In his 2009 recording, American composer B.R. Pearson presents us with a journey around in his Paintings in the Hall. In his view, both art and music work together to divide space and time. Paintings are space and music is
Edvard Grieg met Hans Christian Andersen in Copenhagen in 1864, when the writer and poet already enjoyed considerable fame in many parts of Europe for his stories, novels, and poetry. The two artists enjoyed a close kinship as both were
Throughout his life, Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) composed a total of 181 songs. That means that excluding folk-song arrangements, Grieg composed more vocal music than piano and chamber works together. From his 4 Songs Op. 2 of 1861 to the 5
Claude Debussy set altogether thirteen poems by the Parnassian poet Théodore de Banville (1823-1891). The Banville mélodies, like almost half of his entire output for voice and piano, date from a period between roughly 1880 to 1884. This period was