Visual Representation of Beethoven Sonata for Cello and Piano, Opus 102, No.1

By Martina Angela Müller

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Through synesthesia I have been able to “see” music as an inner visual experience of ever moving, radiant expressions of color and form, an unfolding world as the music gets performed. I listen to music with my eyes closed so that I can see it inwardly. Over the course of my artistic career, I have painted a good number of paintings that have been “snapshots”, or one particular “scene” from the music to represent the overall mood of the piece, or a visual expression from the music that was particularly striking. For many years I have thought about how to make this ongoing, colorful moving experience visible through a participatory process rather than just in still painting. 

This project is an attempt to show a visual representation of the music as it comes to life while the sonata is being played. I worked with acrylic paint on plexiglass so that I could film the painting process from behind. What appears as simultaneous splendorous unfolding of color and form in the inner vision can still not be fully captured by this rather crude medium, but the video can let the viewer participate somewhat in the process of making a painting in the physical world, that tries to grasp the non-physical essence of the music. 

The cross-pollination of one art form to another, like poetry expressed in music through song or dance, or visual art expressed in music (Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky for example), or in this case music expressed in painting is a fascinating form of artistic inspiration.

In the concert, a video projection of the painting process expressing the colors and movements of the music, the inner essence and mood of the sonata in flowing, translucent paint will accompany the performance and the four finished paintings, one for each movement, will be on display. •

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