Category: ‘Music’

• Medieval and Renaissance Music: Why is it Important?

  Guide: Vocal Music in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods Historians often point to the Medieval period as the beginning of the unbroken tradition of notated (written down) Western music that developed into what we now consider “classical” or “art” music. Although the earlier Ancient music of Greece was very important and influential, only a few fragments of [...]

  posted in Medieval, Music, Renaissance tagged Medieval music, Renaissance music

• Nell Shaw Cohen, “The Course of Empire” (2008) Inspired by the paintings of Thomas Cole

   Guide: Thomas Cole’s “The Course of Empire”  Guide: Music Inspired by Art The Course of Empire (2008) is a string quartet by Nell Shaw Cohen inspired by a cycle of five paintings by Thomas Cole (1801-1848) of the same name. Explore these topics to learn more: Inspired by Art - The process of composing music inspired by paintings and [...]

  posted in Art, Modern, Music tagged music inspired by art, Nell Shaw Cohen, new music, The Course of Empire, Thomas Cole

• Nell Shaw Cohen, Revealed in Stone (2009) Inspired by the Poetry and Art of Michelangelo

   Guide: Music Inspired by Art >Listen to the complete song cycle on this website Michelangelo’s Poetry in Translation The poems were composed in strict meter and rhyme, and while some English translations recreate this (notably those by Sidney Alexander) I was attracted to the more prose-like translations of James M. Saslow based on their clarity of [...]

  posted in Art, Literature, Music tagged Michelangelo, music inspired by art, Nell Shaw Cohen, new music, poetry

• Nell Shaw Cohen, To Create One’s Own World (2009) Inspired by Georgia O’Keeffe

   Guide: Music Inspired by Art Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) is among the most noted American painters of the 20th century. She is well known for her abstracted images of flowers and her images of the New Mexico southwest scenery, which she loved and thrived in for the latter half of her life. Born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, [...]

  posted in Art, Modern, Music tagged Georgia O'Keeffe, music inspired by art, Nell Shaw Cohen, new music

• The Faraway Nearby: Georgia O’Keeffe and the New Mexico Landscape [VIDEO]

   Guide: Music Inspired by Art I believe that painter Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986) achieved an important artistic ideal: to create new meanings, previously unrealized connections, and heightened ways of perceiving the world and filtering experience. I seek to do the same with my music video piece, The Faraway Nearby: to offer new insight and new ways of [...]

  posted in Art, Modern, Music, Videos tagged Georgia O'Keeffe, music inspired by art, Nell Shaw Cohen, new music

• Music Inspired by Art [GUIDE]

   Music Inspired by Art is a guide to music I’ve composed in response to ideas, atmospheres, and narratives from visual artworks ranging from 20th century Modernism to Italian Renaissance sculptures. I believe music has the potential to have a profound effect on the way that we see and understand visual art, and vice versa, in the same [...]

  posted in Art, Guides, Music tagged music inspired by art, Nell Shaw Cohen

• Nell Shaw Cohen, “Setsugekka” (2011) Japanese woodblock prints by Hiroshige

   Guide: Music Inspired by Art Setsugekka (Snow, Moon, and Flowers) is an 1857 series of three triptychs (artworks in three sections) by the Japanese master Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858). These woodblock prints, or Ukiyo-e (“pictures of the floating world”), convey Hiroshige’s vision of three different real-world landscapes representing the traditional thematic triad of snow (setsu), moon [...]

  posted in Art, Music tagged Hiroshige, Japanese woodblock prints, music inspired by art, Nell Shaw Cohen, new music

• An Introduction to Synesthesia [VIDEO]

  Synesthesia, know as the “crossing of the senses”, is a neurological characteristic that can take many forms. It is not limited to artistic individuals (prominent synesthetes include physicist Richard Feynman and engineer Nikola Tesla), but synesthetic responses have fueled the work of many of artists (including Charles Burchfield). This video produced by Beyond the Notes [...]

  posted in Art, Music, Videos tagged synesthesia

• Nell Shaw Cohen, “Watercolors” (2011) paintings by Charles Burchfield

   Guide: Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), painter  Guide: Music Inspired by Art Watercolors (2011) is a work for wind quintet I composed inspired by the watercolor paintings of Charles Ephraim Burchfield (1893-1967), a brilliant American artist of the first half of the 20th century. The four movements of Watercolors correspond to four paintings: An April Mood, Autumnal Fantasy, Sun [...]

  posted in Art, Modern, Music tagged Charles Burchfield, music inspired by art, Nell Shaw Cohen, new music

• Madrigal and Word Painting

  Guide: Vocal Music in the Medieval and Renaissance Periods Madrigal was a form of non-religious (secular) Renaissance vocal music for two or more singers, which reached the peak of its popularity in the 16th century. In France, the equivalent form was known as chanson. Unlike most sacred music of the time, madrigals were composed in the vernacular language [...]

  posted in Music, Renaissance tagged chanson, Janequin, madrigal, polyphony, Renaissance music, Weelkes, word painting