L'étude de la composition musicale basée sur des oeuvres picturales
Music has the power to express what may be latent in other art-forms, just as it may transcend and add new layers of meaning to the text set in a song. But only the illustrations themselves can actually encapsulate the scene, character or item at the heart of the music. In this thesis, I explore the different musical means available to the composer to set his interpretation of a pictorial work to music. This work is, by definition, deprived of the temporal dimension. If, for the painter Eugène Delacroix, « The true goal of the painter is to make us take part in the intensity of the moment », music can be appreciated and leave its mark on us only according to the time it takes to deploy. Consequently, a question nurtured my reflection: From what angles and according to what criteria of analysis can I approach a pictorial work in order to draw observations that could subsequently serve as a support for the creation of my music? I try to answer these questions by approaching the interpretation of an illustration through four possible avenues: Realist or descriptive, impressionist, narrative and, finally, by a stylistic transfer from the illustrative medium to the musical medium. For the purposes of my study, I composed three works based on seven illustrations : 1) Tableaux Montmartre. Symphonic piece inspiered by Pictures at an exhibition by Modest Moussorgsky and whose illustrative support consists of five canvases representing Montmartre by five different painters: Charles Malle, Armand Lourenço, Kees Van Dongen, Eugène Paul (Gen-Paul) and Georges Braque. 2) Lumière fossile. Symphonic poem inspired by a photograph of the cosmic radiation taken by the Planck space telescope 3) Tennis Duet. Piece, whose structural form may vary, for solo piano inspired by a photograph of Arnold Schoenberg playing tennis.
composition illustrations tableau analysis paintings