ROOM 2 – Musicians inspired by visual artwork

Like those musicians inspired by literature, the viewing of visual artwork has also inspired musical compositions. Painting and drawing use the techniques of color, line, and form to create a specific image. Music also uses color, line, and form in order to produce sound. Visual Art relies on paint, crayons, pencils, or dyes to produce color, whereas music relies on the use of varying instruments to produce color, or timbre. Each instrument, like each color with its distinct hue, produces a different tone quality and sound. Using multiple instruments is like painting with multiple colors. Visual Art uses lines to form the structure of the piece, and Music relies on its staff, or lines, to do the same thing. While visual art relies on shapes for forms, Music uses forms such as Rondo and Sonata-allegro to dictate the structure of the musical composition. The following room will focus on two musicians who were inspired by pieces of artwork to compose pieces of their own. As you see the image displayed on the wall, listen for how each musician paints a similar image in his music.