Art Inspires Art

Jeanna Jerde

I was introduced to the concept of my thesis by my voice professor. Knowing my interest in both art and music, she suggested study of the song cycle Le Travail du Peintre by Francis Poulenc because the subject matter of the songs is painters. She also mentioned that she had thought of performing this song cycle while showing slides of various paintings. This is when I decided to perform the songs with slides of work from each corresponding painter and matching text from the song. From further study of this song cycle, I discovered a progression that I thought was very interesting. Francis Poulenc was inspired by Paul luards poetry and luard was inspired by painters to create his poetry. There existed a progression from visual art to literary art to performing art. This was when I decided to create a painting inspired by the song cycle, Le Travail du Peintre. I made this painting in order to create a cycle of visual art to literary art to performing art and back to visual art again. There are 7 songs in the song cycle Le Travail du Peintre that represent 7 artists: Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Paul Klee, Joan Mir, and Jacques Villon. I decided to focus on three songs, artists, and poems: Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Joan Mir. The artists represented are either cubistic or surrealist. Cubistic artists represented are: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, and Jacques Villon. Surrealistic artists represented are: Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, and Joan Mir. I wanted to include at least one cubistic artist and one surrealistic artist. I chose Pablo Picasso to represent the cubistic artists due to the incredible importance he has in art history and due to the stress put on process instead of product in creating art that is represented in both the

music and the poetry. I chose two surrealist artists because of my interest in and strong connection to surrealistic art. I chose Marc Chagall and Joan Mir as the two surrealist artists because they are both important surrealistic painters but take different approaches to creating art and cover different subject matter. I began my study of the three songs of the song cycle: Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, and Joan Mir, last year after I decided that the song cycle would be a part of my thesis. I began studying the song Marc Chagall last spring semester and continued to study it this fall along with Pablo Picasso and Joan Mir. As with all of my songs, I learned the melodic line and rhythm first on a neutral syllable. Then, I learned how to speak and sing the French text using the international phonetic alphabet (IPA). Afterwards, I sang along with the accompanist and begin to work on musical problems such as dynamics, stylizations, etc. These songs were challenging to put together with the accompanist because the piano line is really a countermelody instead of an accompaniment. I like to think of the song cycle as more as a duet for piano and vocal than a vocal solo. I began the planning process for my painting in the summer and was in the planning process for a few months. I made several sketches, playing with imagery, composition, and color schemes. Next, I cut out the shapes from Masonite board and built the cradle to support the painting. In October and November, I painted the background, silhouette of the figure, and Masonite shapes. Then, I attached the rib cage to the back using hinges and painted that last. I began to research seriously in September. First, I looked in our library for resources, and found a few sources that I needed. Next, I used the database WorldCat to look for resources in other libraries. I discovered that there had been several theses written on the song cycle Le

Travail du Peintre. I put in several interlibrary loan requests at this point, and received many useful sources. One of these sources was Laura Frys thesis on Le Travail du Peintre entitled The Dawn is Behind Your Picture. I found this source to have a lot of useful information. During this time, I realized that I didnt want to analyze every bit of poetry, music, and painting as Fry had done in her thesis. I found that part of the thesis to be very dry and skipped over most of it. I dont believe there is a correct analysis of anything and decided that I would leave the interpretation of the pieces open to the audience. This is also when I decided that I need to add context before my discussion of the cycle. I decided to speak about the general connection between the arts and provide information that would be useful to educators. The unit plan, Understanding Relationships between Music and Art, was a very useful source that provided a list of the terms common to both music and art and several examples of each. I found the visual examples online and bought the musical examples from iTunes. I was also scouring the internet for images of paintings from the selected painter that would match each line of text from the poetry. I started at the database Artstor but wasnt pleased with the selection. I ended up finding most of the images that I used on a website called Olgas Gallery that had a large selection of quality images. I created my Powerpoint while researching, adding information from my notes as I went along. My last task was to condense the text and organize it so it was as readable and understandable as possible. I also began to add more images to make the presentation more visually interesting. I created my lecture during this time, detailing what points I wanted to make verbally.

My final step was to have the dress rehearsal in which I presented the lecture recital as I would at the actual presentation. I received useful notes from my thesis committee and my accompanist. I quickly made these adjustments the day before the lecture recital. Finally, I presented my lecture recital and met with my thesis committee to discuss.

Works Cited
Babi Badalov: Visual Poetry last modified December 2012 http://babibadalovvisualpoetry.wordpress.com/ Beethoven, Ludwig van. Allegro Con Brio. From Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Op. 67. Members of the Columbia Symphony Orchestra and New York Philharmonic. Conducted by Leonard Bernstein. Beethoven: Symphony No. 5; Leonard Bernstein Talks about Beethovens First Movement of the Fifth Symphony (Great Performances). Sony BMG 2006, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/22/2012. iTunes. Copland, Aaron. Fanfare for the Common Man. London Symphony Orchestra and William Warfield. Conducted by Aaron Copland. Copland Conducts Copland (Expanded Edition). Sony BMG 2003, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/22/2012. iTunes. David Piper. The Illustrated History of Art. New York: Bounty, 2000. Dvrk, Antonn. 1st Movement: Adagio. From Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95. Various Artists. Conducted by Unknown. Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in e minor, Op. 95, From the New World; Smetana, Ma Vlast (My Country. Avid Records 1998, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/22/2012. iTunes. Ferenczy, Kroly - Orpheus (1894), last modified December 2008,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Ferenczy,_K%C3%A1roly_-_Orpheus_(1894).jpg Francis Poulenc. Diary of My Songs. New York: Kahn and Averill, 2007. Gluck, Christoph Willibald. Che Faro Senza Euridice. From Orfeo Ed Euridice. Southwest German Chamber Orchestra, Wilhelm Keitel and Graciella Araya. Conducted by unknown. 111 Opera Masterpieces. Menuetto Classics 2009, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/23/2012. iTunes. Grieg, Edvard. In the Hall of the Mountain King. Franz Richter and Radio Orchestra Berlin. Conducted by Unknown. 100 Must Have Classical Songs A-Z. Classical Masters 2010, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/22/2012. iTunes. Handel, George Frideric. Minuet. From The Royal Fireworks. Lumiere String Quartet. Conducted by unknown. Hooked on Handel. Lumiere Records 2006, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/22/2012. iTunes. Jane K Bates, Becoming an Art Teacher (New York: Wadsworth, 2000). Keith W. Daniel, Francis Poulenc: His Artistic Development and Musical Style (Ann Arbor, UMI Research, 1982), 1-353. Laura Fry, The Dawn is Behind Your Picture (PhD diss., College of Fine Arts of Ohio University, 2007). Marilyn Stokstad. Art History. New Jersey: Pearson, 2011. Michele Dantini. Modern & Contemporary Art. New York: Sterling, 2005.

Mussorgsky, Modest. The Great Gate of Kiev. From Pictures at an Exhibition. Cleveland Orchestra. Conducted by Oliver Knussen. Pictures at an Exhibition. Deutsche Grammophon 2004, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/26/2010. iTunes. Olgas Gallery, last modified July 2012, http://www.abcgallery.com/. Peter Dayan, Art as Music, Music as Poetry, Poetry as Art, From Whistler to Stravinsky and Beyond (Surrey: Ashgate, 2011), 9-53, 75-95, 119-147. Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolai. Flight of the Bumble Bee. From The Tale of Tsar Saltan. London Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducted by Unknown. Three Centuries of the Greatest Hits. Legacy International 2006, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/22/2012. iTunes. Robert Nugent, Paul Eluard (New York: Twayne, 1974), 15-141. Smetana, Bedrich. Dance of the Comedians. Various Artists. Conducted by Unknown. Classical for the New Age. Essential World Masters 2010, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/22/2010. iTunes. Stravinsky, Igor. Adoration of the Earth: The Augurs of Spring/Dance of the Adolescent Girls from Rite of Spring. San Francisco Symphony and Michael Tilson Thomas. Conducted by Unknown . Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, the Firebird Suite (selections). San Francisco Symphony 2009, AAC audio file. Downloaded 11/22/2012. iTunes. Thomas Armstrong, Multiple Intelligences (Alexandria: ASCD, 2000). Understanding Relationships between Art and Music, last modified October 2008, http://thejacksonsymphony.org/education-outreach/pdf/COMMONTERMSUNIT09.pdf.

"Wright-ing" Prompt: Concrete Poetry last modified March 2011, http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/wright/teachers/wfomanual/langarts/poem.html