TALKING PICTURES, SOUNDING SENSE

When narrative in literature and poetry has the capacity to inspire the eye and ear with equal force, composers and painters alike are found rushing to re-deliver that impact in the language of paint and music. This is how it looks, they say, or, this is how it sounds; and what they say suggests that music and art created from the same poem or story can often reward our attention to both of them at once. Talking Pictures, Sounding Sense will offer some striking examples of this from both art and music. Here are five especially memorable moments when painters and composers (sometimes more than one of each) have met like moths round thecandle-flame of the same narrative.

CAN THEY DO WITHOUT EURYDICE?

First heard in Virgil and Ovid, Orpheus’s gift for spellbinding, a self-foiled rescue bid, and a dumbfounding death have won him tributes. How big an audience should we see him singing to? Should aural impressions of his voice be unearthly? Monteverdi, Gluck and Milhaud try to capture the ineffable, as do Dürer, Canova, Poussin, and Watts.

Register to tell a friend about this lecture.

Comments

If you would like to comment about this lecture, please register here.

©2003-2006 Niminim Limited. Created by

Any ad revenue is entirely reinvested into the Lecture List's operating fund