Monday, March 18, 2013

Sight and Sound collaborate at DGS






Music and Art Exchange Project


Members of the 2012-2013 Symphonic Band began work on a piece of music composed in 2011 by Samuel Hazo entitled “Blue and Green Music.”  This work was based on a 1921 painting by Georia O’Keeffe of the same title.  In producing the painting, O'Keeffe explained her idea that “music could be translated into something for the eye.”  As rehearsals for the performance of this music ensued, the Symphonic Band students learned about the concept of performing with different types of tone and timbre on their instruments.  Indeed, it became possible to take a breath in and exhale using a “blue” tone, and a “green” tone, with cooler air quality than warm air that might be used for “orange” or “red” tone.  Not only did the colors of different combinations of instruments have a significant effect on the sounds of the music, but a synthesizer was used to generate a lush string section sound that contributed to the “blue” and “green” effect of the music in a much different way.  The piece also had a great deal of dynamic expression inherent in the writing, and the students enjoyed expanding their ability to play dynamically shaped phrases of greater and greater contrast and depth.  When the work was performed on March 6, 2013, an enlarged photo of the painting was projected on a screen above the band.  The audience was then allowed the freedom to visualize the painting and hear the music on their own creative and imaginative terms.

Painting and Drawing Studio

Five students in Mrs. Hansen’s 2013 spring semester Painting and Drawing Studio were asked to pick a piece of music that they enjoyed personally, or music that inspired their creativity.  Once the music was picked, each student then created a drawing or sketch of their idea for a painting that would capture their thoughts and feelings about the music they chose in a visual way.  Much like Georgia O’Keeffe in 1921, the students then transformed their ideas onto canvas and developed paintings that were titled as the music they chose.  A description of these thoughts and processes are contained in written paragraph under each of the paintings on display.  On the same March 6, 2013 concert, each of these works was projected onto the screen, and a sample of the music that inspired them was played through the auditorium sound system.  The audience was then free to hear the music and view the creation of each of these students based on their knowledge of reading about the process, and then seeing and hearing the final product.  After the performance of these five works, two of the students then took the opportunity to describe to the audience what the project was like for them.  They shared their thoughts and feelings of inspiration, creation and production of their works of art.   Thanks to participating artists Aura Evans, Josh Johnson, Natalie Pelekh, Crystal Ponce and David Morlock.