A space to explore the connections between music and the visual arts: painting, sculpture, architecture and artistic movements meet sounds, instruments and musical forms.
Music does not exist on its own: it interacts with painting, sculpture, architecture and literature. Over the centuries, artists and musicians have looked to the other arts for inspiration for new forms, colours and sound sensations.
A painting can suggest a rhythm, a melody or a mood. Think of Debussy and Impressionist painting, Kandinskij and abstract music, or symphonic programmes that describe scenes, characters and landscapes.
Gothic cathedrals, Baroque theatres and modern concert halls are spaces designed for music. A place's acoustics influence how we perceive sound and silence.
Renaissance, Baroque, Romanticism, Impressionism, Futurism: every artistic movement has a musical counterpart. Comparing works of art with pieces of music from the same period helps us understand the tastes, society and ideas of an era.
An inclusive lesson exploring the connection between music and painting by turning sounds into shapes and colours.
Materia
Art and Visual Studies / Music
Destinatari
Middle School
Durata
2 Hours (or 2 sessions of 60 min)
Obiettivo
Turn sounds into shapes/colours and vice versa
Here is a visual summary of the lesson's key idea:
He listened to music and turned it into abstract paintings (shapes, lines, colours).
He looked at paintings and turned them into pieces of music (notes, rhythm, timbre).
For Kandinsky, every colour created a vibration in the soul that matched a musical instrument:
We can see this in the famous painting Giallo-Rosso-Blu (1925), in which Kandinsky arranges colours and lines as if they were instruments in an orchestra: yellow rings out at a high pitch, blue spreads out with depth, and geometric shapes pulse to the beat.
Mussorgsky composed the work "Quadri di un'esposizione" after visiting an art exhibition:
The work consists of ten miniatures, preceded by and interspersed with the Promenade, the theme that represents the visitor moving from one painting to another. Mussorgsky uses timbre, rhythm and register to help us “see” with our ears: in Il vecchio castello the sound is mysterious and dark, like a medieval painting; in Baba-Jagà the witch's flight becomes frantic rhythms and broken chords; La grande porta di Kiev closes the cycle with a glorious climax of sound, as if the monumental gateway in the painting were rising before us.
| Concept | What Does It Mean? | Practical Example |
|---|---|---|
| Synaesthesia | Experiencing one sense through another (e.g. "seeing" a sound or "hearing" a colour). | A high-pitched sound becomes a thin yellow line. |
| Visual Rhythm | Regular or varied repetition of visual elements on the page. | Evenly spaced red dots. |
| Timbre and Colour | The distinctive "character" of a musical instrument or a shade of colour. | Trumpet = bright yellow; Cello = midnight blue. |
Follow these 4 simple steps to create your own synaesthetic artwork:
Stage 1: Preparation (5 minutes)
Take a sheet of drawing paper and use a pencil to divide it into 4 equal sections. Get your favourite colours ready (felt-tip pens, coloured pencils or chalk).
Stage 2: Listening in the Dark (5 minutes)
Close your eyes and listen to the piece of music playing in the classroom. Ask yourself: is the music fast or slow? Is it gentle or jagged?
Stage 3: Trace the Sound (15 minutes)
Listen to the piece again. Let your hand move freely across the paper in time with the music. Use warm colours for loud sounds and cool colours for gentle sounds.
Stage 4: The Class Exhibition (10 minutes)
Put your work on the classroom wall alongside your classmates' work to create our group exhibition!
Cathedrals, theatres and concert halls are designed to hold and amplify sound. Stained-glass windows colour the light just as instruments colour the timbre: space, image and music blend into a single experience for all the senses.
Three pieces to listen to:
Made with ♥ by Maristella Povellato
This section will grow with new worksheets on works of art and pieces of music, concept maps and activities comparing different forms of artistic expression.