WTF?! Can we really ‘hear’ art?

Welcome to our new series, What the Fact?!

Let’s hack the ARTS!

Scott, tell us about Pictures at an Exhibition. Why does this work resonate with you?

Originally a work for piano by the Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky, Pictures at an Exhibition owes a great deal of its popularity to the arrangement for orchestra by the French composer, Maurice Ravel. It is rare that an arrangement of a piece of music becomes more famous that the original, however Ravel’s skills as an orchestrator were such that this has become the case here.

My first introduction to the piece was at a concert featuring a pianist playing some of the original extracts, then followed up by an orchestra playing those same pieces to show how Ravel envisaged those same pieces for orchestra. It was an experience that I have never forgotten, and has given me a deep appreciation of the art of orchestration.

The arrangement we are playing for this concert is by the English composer and conductor Elgar Howarth, and has justifiably become a classic of the brass ensemble repertoire. Howarth’s skill in using a more limited choice of instruments – only brass and percussion as opposed to full symphony orchestra – to illuminate the music is truly masterful.

The music is of course inspired by a series of paintings by Viktor Hartmann. In your opinion, which movement most strongly reflects its own painting (its source material)?

Unfortunately, many of the paintings upon which Mussorgsky’s music is based have been lost. However, we now have this music as a lasting reminder of these lost works.

Of the works that remain, for me the most poignant is the piece entitled Samuel Goldenberg and Schmuyle (Two Polish Jews – One Rich, the Other Poor). The artist’s renderings of these two men gives us an insight into their personalities – one clearly confident of his place in the world, sitting for a traditional side-on portrait and looking into the distance; while the other is downcast, troubled and alone with his battered hat perched upon what could be his entire worldly possessions; and yet, retaining a certain dignity in his plight.

Mussorgsky’s music seems to capture the essence of the two men, and his use of Jewish musical idioms such as the modality of the piece and the ornaments he employs leaves the listener with an incredibly evocative aural picture.

How can music be used to communicate visual art?

While music of itself is an abstract art, the inescapable cultural context in which we live means that composers can draw on things that remind us of certain cultures or events, allowing us to draw a picture in our own mind’s eye. Through this approach, music can serve as a very real response or representation of another work of art. The suggestion to the listener is all the more powerful because they are limited only by their own imagination – where painting remains static, music can be spontaneous and the ‘image’ can change according to who is playing the music, and also in this case who has arranged the music.

What do you feel are some similarities between music and visual art that we might not often realise or think about?

Music and art share the obvious connection of being a vehicle through which an artist can communicate through the ‘non-literal’ their view of the world, and invite their audience to interpret their work according to their own experience.

There is only so much you can ‘tell’ an audience through any form of art, then the leap that audience makes to their own understanding of the work completes the process, thereby making it something that is unique to each person. It’s why the person sitting next to you might yawn in your favourite bit, or why you might be puzzled by the thundering ovation of a performance you didn’t enjoy. To be even more specific, sometimes it might be simply that your own response is because you’re tired and crabby, or because you had a stunning glass of red wine in the foyer right before the show!

It is unusual to find artists of any discipline who are interested in only one form of expression – great art is about the message, not necessarily the medium, and seeing how a great artist impacts on their audience is fascinating no matter the genre. It is no coincidence that many musical and artistic movements share the same philosophical principles and inspired each other – the French impressionists of the early 20th Century a clear example.

How does one artform enrich the other – why is it important to make music about art, and vice versa?

When different forms of art reflect on the same subject matter, there is the added bonus of finding new ways to interpret these different approaches based on our experience of these things. In Pictures, Hartmann’s costume design for The Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks is quite cute, but Mussorgsky’s treatment of the idea gives us a sense of the ridiculous in a way that makes the sketches seem to leap off the page – it is Mussorgsky’s vision that draws the viewer further into Hartmann’s world.

What advice to give a young musician looking to perform a piece of music inspired by a work of art?

Well, there are three choices, all equally valid:

1. Try to see an image of the painting that inspired the composer, to give a deeper understanding of the work to be performed.
2. Under no circumstances limit the imagination by looking at something that visually represents what is to be achieve through sound. Avoid polluting the mind by seeing the painting that inspired the music in order to hold true to a unique vision.
3. “The advice I would give to someone is to not take anyone’s advice” (Eddie Murphy).

See Scott perform with the Australian Brass Quintet and ANAM musicians in Brass Spectacular: Pictures at an Exhibition, 11am April 13 in the South Melbourne Town Hall.

Check back in soon for our next What the Fact?! with professionals in the music industry.

Paintings by Viktor Hartmann – the source of Pictures at an Exhibition, public domain. Emoji via APACHE – License 2.0.