{"id":79,"date":"2011-05-02T20:26:22","date_gmt":"2011-05-03T00:26:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/?p=79"},"modified":"2011-05-08T11:53:29","modified_gmt":"2011-05-08T15:53:29","slug":"charles-burchfield-and-watercolors-for-wind-quintet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/2011\/05\/charles-burchfield-and-watercolors-for-wind-quintet\/","title":{"rendered":"Charles Burchfield and “Watercolors” for wind quintet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Autumnal<\/a>
Autumnal Fantasy, 1916-44. Private collection.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I am fascinated by the works of American painter Charles Burchfield<\/strong> (1893-1967), and was inspired by his visual world to compose a wind quintet\u00a0and an orchestral tone poem (The Sphinx and the Milky Way<\/em><\/strong>).\u00a0The premiere of my wind quintet\u00a0Watercolors<\/strong><\/em>, the winner of NEC’s 2010-2011\u00a0Honors Ensemble Composition Competition, <\/strong>will be performed on\u00a0Thursday, May 12th at 8:00pm in Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory<\/strong> (290 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA, 02115<\/strong>)<\/strong> by\u00a0Andra Winds<\/a><\/strong>, who were selected this year as an NEC Honors Ensemble<\/a>. I’m very honored to have my work performed by this talented group in beautiful Jordan Hall.<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/a>
An April Mood, 1946-55. Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Watercolors<\/em> references four watercolor paintings completed during Burchfield’s late period (the mid-1940s-60s). Although the paintings were not created as a set, I selected them for their complementary contrasts and connections.<\/p>\n

Burchfield’s dynamic style and almost psychedelic imagery are arrestingly unique. His haunting paintings speak of a spiritual world of transcendence, redemption, decay and renewal, and he depicted the wonders of nature (the patterns on a sphinx moth’s wing; moonlight filtering through the petals of a sunflower) in an artistic voice that is as distinctive as it is beautiful.<\/p>\n

\"Charles<\/a>
Glory of Spring (Radiant Spring), 1950. Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, NY.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each movement of Watercolors reflects my impression of an individual painting. The paintings depict natural environments in different seasons or moods, from the barren rainstorm landscape seen in An April Mood<\/em> to the luminous forest of Glory of Spring<\/em>. At times, musical references to the visuals are direct (the bird or insect-like motifs in Autumnal Fantasy<\/em>, for example), but more often than not, my music is an interpretation of the paintings’ overall atmospheres.<\/p>\n

It is interesting to note that Burchfield himself was a passionate music fan (which helps to explain why his paintings are so suggestive of music). His copious journals reveal that he favored Beethoven, Wagner, and Sibelius, and\u00a0created artworks inspired by his listening. Burchfield was sensitive to sound, especially the sounds of nature, and some of his paintings contain abstract patterns that directly represent sounds (see Autumnal Fantasy<\/em>,\u00a0The Insect Chorus<\/em> [1917] or\u00a0Song of the Telegraph Poles<\/em> [1917-1952]). These images pulsate with energy, and imply a world of sensory experience.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am fascinated by the works of American painter Charles Burchfield (1893-1967), and was inspired by his visual world to compose a wind quintet\u00a0and an orchestral tone poem (The Sphinx and the Milky Way).\u00a0The premiere of my wind quintet\u00a0Watercolors, the winner of NEC’s 2010-2011\u00a0Honors Ensemble Composition Competition, will be performed on\u00a0Thursday, May 12th at 8:00pm … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Charles Burchfield and “Watercolors” for wind quintet”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,28],"tags":[81,36,23,26],"class_list":["post-79","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art-and-music","category-performances","tag-art-and-music","tag-charles-burchfield","tag-concerts-and-events","tag-synesthesia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nellshawcohen.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}