Based on numbers of views, these are the ten most popular articles on ARHtistic License in 2015. Have you read them all?
9. Top Ten Ways to Combat Writer’s Block
7. Woodstock
6. Bringing Animals to Water(color)
5. Daring to Don Opera Glasses
4. In the Meme Time: Life is Like a Camera
2. Soliciting (and Offering) Feedback
1. Sparkle
Which was your favorite post in 2015? What would you like to see in 2016? Answer in the comments below.
Malian kora player Ballake Sissoko and French cellist Vincent Segal.
Many years ago I gave up on writing New Year’s resolutions. It seemed to me like an exercise in futility—by February I’d forgotten whatever good intentions I had the month before.
It also seemed incorrect to call it a New Year’s resolution, since I was making the same ones year after year.
The Encarta Dictionary has 13 definitions for the word resolution. I would like to look at the concept of the New Year’s Resolution in light of 9 of them.
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He created everything there is–nothing exists that he didn’t make (John 1:3 TLB).
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Russian composer Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881), best known for his opera, Boris Godunov, and also for Pictures at an Exhibition.
Viktor Hartmann
Mussorgsky had a friend named Viktor Hartmann who was an artist and architect. Both men were devoted to the cause of intrinsically Russian-style art.
Hartmann died from an aneurysm in 1873. The sudden loss of the artist, only thirty-nine years old, shook Mussorgsky along with others in Russia’s art world. An exhibition of over 400 Hartmann works was held in St. Petersburg, Russia, in February and March of 1874. Mussorgsky lent works from his personal collection to the exhibit and viewed the show in person. Inspired by the experience, he composed Pictures at an Exhibition in six weeks. The music depicts an imaginary tour of an art collection. Titles of individual movements allude to works by Hartmann. (Click on the images below to enlarge and see captions.)
Mussorgsky based his musical material on drawings and watercolors by Hartmann produced mostly during the artist’s travels through Poland, France and Italy; the final movement depicts an architectural design for the capital city of Ukraine. Today most of the pictures from the Hartmann exhibit are lost, making it impossible to be sure in many cases which Hartmann works Mussorgsky had in mind. Musicologist Alfred Frankenstein, in a 1939 article for The Musical Quarterly, claimed to have identified seven of the pictures.
Here is the music the above paintings inspired:
Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks
Catacombs
Hut on Fowl’s Legs
Did you catch on that in Russian folklore, Baba Yaga is a witch?
Great Gate of Kiev
Gorgeous, right?
Mussorgsky links the suite’s movements in a way that depicts the viewer’s own progress through the exhibition. Two “Promenade” movements stand as portals to the suite’s main sections. Their regular pace and irregular meter depicts the act of walking.
Modest Mussorgsky
Mussorgsky wrote the suite for piano. The French composer, Maurice Ravel, arranged it for orchestra.
After composing Pictures at an Exhibition, Mussorgsky succumbed to deep depression and drank heavily. Undoubtedly, the alcoholic lifestyle contributed to his death at age 42.
A print of this portrait, painted by Ilya Repin shortly before Mussorgsky’s death, hung in my classroom when I taught elementary general music. My students often commented how scary this painting is, opening up a conversation about the dangers of alcohol abuse.
Merry Christmas!
I’m sure you have a busy day today, celebrating the Lord’s birth with family and friends (or maybe not).
So, rather than burden you with a lengthy article about the season, I’d like to just share some music. Sit back, relax, enjoy.
My favorite acapella group:
My favorite scene from my favorite Christmas movie:
I dare you to watch this without your eyes tearing up:
Hysterical:
Old favorite in a new way:
Everybody’s favorite singing chickens:
No collection of Christmas music would be complete without:
And for your New Year’s Eve pleasure, another Zooey Deschanel duet:
Thank you, Donna, for this guest post. Donna shares something beautiful every day on her blog. Check it out!
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