This week I decided to write about my sheet music Rhapsody in Blue. The piece of music has a cover picture of an unnamed city. The picture itself looks like it was painted with pastels and has a very muddy appearance like Van Goh's Starry Night. When one things of the city, all sorts of information and situations start to unfold. The hustle and bustle of the city can relate to the fast passages in the piece. Also the jazzy feel to the music corresponds with its birthplace, the city. The rhythmic aspects of the music can also be compared to the thousands of people moving around down the busy sidewalks. Car horns are represented through use of big brass sections and cadenzas. I feel that music can be represented through pictures just as well as a story. Music is a story and its all up to perception. The best fit for this would definitely be the city. The slow section could represent night time or a peaceful picnic in the city park. Emotions are also felt through the text. The image uses cool colors such as blues and greens to create a sense of security. If it were a sinister piece the colors would be more hot such as reds and yellows. Another aspect of the picture is how it views the city from a birds view at a distance. It gives the feeling of magnificence and grace. The main theme of the piece is very majestic and is seemingly represents the immense grandeur of the big cement blocks and steel beams of a city. The view of a city at night is even more powerful in how it lights up the sky from miles away. Once picture can change the interpretation of music and how the text is read.
WC. 301
I really like your image of what this piece means in the sense of a picture and scene. I would agree that the piece has a Van Gough type of feel to it.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a lovely song! :)
ReplyDeleteI love that song :)
ReplyDeleteRhapsody in Blue is one of my favorite songs! I love the intro with the clarinet.
ReplyDeleteWonderful job of describing and analyzing the cover of your sheet music. I also want to give you props for connecting music with storytelling and visuals/colors. Not too many people make this connection...possibly because a lot of contemporary music doesn't highlight this aspect, but its great that you talked about it in this blog.
Btw, when you mentioned a "sinister piece" and the cover being reds and yellows, I immediately thought of Stravinsky. Did you have a certain composer or piece in mind when you thought of the sinister tone or these bold colors?
Yeah! Its a great piece. I played it Senior year for the last concert. It is interesting seeing the connections between literature and music now. Also just realizing how many things can be related to other and similar concepts can be applied. Im excited for music literature class next semester.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the colors, I agree with your view of the colors in Stravinsky's music. I can also picture a lot of things by Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich being in the same area. Those Russians write some pretty dramatic and dark stuff.