Art and Music

featured in Fine Arts Winter/Spring 2017

There is inevitably a connection between art and music. Whether it's the sounds that cultivated artistic inspiration or the auditory accompaniments to artistic movements, virtually every facet of fine art invites exploration into great music. In celebration of Monet: The Early Years and Stuart Davis: In Full Swing, the Museum Stores has partnered with specialist Museum Music to offer unique musical perspectives of both exhibitions in the form of high-quality custom music CDs.

Finding the specific connections between music and art begins with defining the concept. The objective may be narrow and specific, such as identifying the favorite music of an artist or uncovering specific music performed at a historic artistic event, or it may be broad and thematic, such as capturing the music of the Impressionist period or compiling songs of a particular location or era.

In the case of the Stuart Davis: In Full Swing CD, the artist's son was consulted to learn how jazz influenced his father, and to determine his father's favorite jazz performers and tunes for the fifteen tracks. For Monet & Music, the research focused on identifying important and representative works of music over the term of Monet's artistic output, with the fourteen tracks emphasizing works by French composers. Unlocking the ties between art and music is uniquely gratifying, and typically yields interesting results, at times truly surprising and delightful.