Discussion
"Great Composers and Color Analysis" Please respond to one of the following, using sources under the Explore heading as the basis of your response:
• Determine whether you prefer Debussy or Mahler after listening to works by each at the Websites below or in this week's Music Folder and after reading about them. Explain the reasons for your preference. Here we find musical composers inspired by poetry and by philosophy. Identify one element within a work that you find interesting or intriguing by either composer, with regard to the manner in which the work is performed or conducted. Briefly, describe the types of things that inspire you to creativity.
• Describe two color paintings by different artists (selected from the list or sources in the Explore section below) that you believe represent the following quote by Kandinsky on the subject of color in art. Justify your response. From Concerning the Spiritual in Art: "If you let your eye stray over a palette of colors, you experience two things. In the first place you receive a purely physical effect, namely the eye itself is enchanted by the beauty and other qualities of color. [...] These are physical sensations, limited in duration. They are superficial, too, and leave no lasting impression behind if the soul remains closed. And so we come to the second result of looking at colors: their psychological effect. They produce a correspondent spiritual vibration, and it is only as a step towards this spiritual vibration that the physical impression is of importance. ... Generally speaking, color directly influences the soul." - Wassily Kandinsky. Briefly, discuss these ideas for the use of color and its impact in our own times, such as its effect for advertising and sales, or its impact in the workplace and home.
Explore:
Debussy and Mahler
• Chapter 33 (p. 1092-4), Debussy; (pp. 1104-1105), Mahler; review the Week 7 "Music Folder"
• "Approaching Mahler and Debussy" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYZ1mUupG7k
• Musical selections for Mahler - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RONBzkthUjM(Symphony No. 2, Finale; Resurrection Symphony) or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbRyttzUzjI (Symphony No. 1, 3rd Movement).
• Musical selection for Debussy - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvnRC7tSX50(Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune)
Kandinsky on Color
• Chapters 33 and 34, works by Van Gogh, Seurat, Cezanne, Gauguin, Munch, Picasso, Braque, and Matisse
• New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Search names listed above at https://www.moma.org/collection/artist_index.php?start_initial=A&end_initial=A&unparsed_search=2
Discussion 6
"Tchaikovsky and Women in Art" Please respond to one of the following, using sources under the Explore heading as the basis of your response:
• Select one composition by Tchaikovsky that you enjoy. Describe the music and subject matter of that work, and explain why you enjoy it. Explain the key reasons why you believe that compositions by Tchaikovsky continue to be popular with contemporary orchestras and audiences. Passionate nationalism, like Tchaikovsky's for Russia, could be a feature of Romantic art and music and in the arts of the late 1800s. Briefly, give primary examples of music today (besides national anthems) that is characterized by nationalism.
• Select two paintings depicting females by both a male artist and female artist named within the Explore section. Compare and contrast these two depictions of women, and comment on any general tendencies that you detect among artists of that era in this respect. Compare this situation in the late 1800s to the way females are depicted in our own modern times, using at least one (1) specific modern example.
Explore:
Tchaikovsky
• Chapter 31 (pp.1039-1040), famous overture and ballet music compositions; review the Week 6 "Music Folder"
• Audio of musical compositions on Tchaikovsky webpage , Kennedy Center Website at https://www.kennedy-center.org/explorer/artists/?entity_id=3651&source_type=C
• Video clip of Tchaikovsky (1812 Overture) at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrsYD46W1U0
Artists' Depictions of Women
• Chapters 31 and 32, depictions of women by male artists Manet, Degas, Dewing, Eakins and by female artists Cassatt, Morisot, Haudecort-Lescot, Sara M. Peale
• National Museum of Women in the Arts at https://www.nmwa.org/explore/collection-highlights/18th%E2%80%9319th-century
• National Gallery of Art (search by artist name) at https://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/Collection/artists.html?pageNumber=1