painting music: Variations on a Theme
Finding patterns in Structure
One of the most interesting challenges I find when painting music is to find a way to express underlying structures in the music. Structure is a fundamental feature of many styles of music, whether it is how the music is organised into shorter sections, or by using other aspects like harmony or established forms to organise. These structures are often audible to the listener. One of the most immediately apparent structures in classical music is the use of theme and variations, where a composer develops their ideas from a given starting point.
Twelve bar blues
Learning to play jazz, a twelve bar blues sequence is often one of the first harmonic structure that students learn. It uses just three chords (I, IV, V) in a given sequence, making it easy and predictable to follow. This little painting shows each square on the grid as a chord in the sequence.
Twelve Bar Blues. Acrylic on primed board.
2. Ach Gott und Herr, JS Bach
Following a similar idea, was interested to see what happened if represented in even more detailed levels, chord by chord, in this short chorale. Each colour combination represents a different chord.
3. Variations on a Theme from the St Anthony Chorale, Brahms
Another type of variations, this time more textural and using different orchestral voices. The piece comprises an opening statement of the theme, eight variations and a finale. I really enjoy the orchestration and the way the woodwinds get so many wonderful moments to shine in the variations.
In the painting I taped off 10 squares to work freely across them (and so satisfying to remove!). This also echoes the 2x5 bar phrases of the main theme. I also kept the palette to five colours.
4. Sinfonia Concertante for Winds in Ebx WA Mozart.
Here the colours represent the interplay of the four solo instruments; blue for oboe, turquoise for bassion, pink for clarinet and gold for French horn. There are 10 variations, plus an opening theme and coda. Acrylic on heavy watercolour paper, 12”x9”.
5. Four Seasons, Vivaldi
This study was created whilst watching a BBC Four live broadcast of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons featuring Pekka Kuusisto and Ale Carr. It was so original and fresh, interweaving Scandinavian folk song and improvisation into a joyous performance. I wish I’d been in the hall! In this quick painting/collage I’ve been loose with the four part structure and tried to introduce some energy, blurred transitions and a mix of textures.
