A Study Involving the Visual Arts in the Development of Musical Concepts

Abstract

rr 1 ODAY ART AND MUSIC are associated in humanities and allied arts courses with increasing frequency, but not always to the advantage of the student. While legitimate association may enhance the student's understanding of one or both areas, the contriving of spurious relationships or, at the other extreme, treating art and music as totally unrelated entities (one for Tuesday, the other for Thursday), may bring about more misconceptions than realizations of aesthetic truth. Even in classes concerned solely witll music, some teachers have employed visual art examples as a supplement to listening, with only a hope that such practice may help to bring about better understanding of musical mood or style. It is generally agreed that music, because of its abstract and temporal nature, is difficult to study aurally, while the visual and plastic arts possess a more stationary existence, and therefore more readily lend themselves to analysis and intensive investigation. It is also recognized that common cultural influences affect both the artist and the composer in any given time and place, and such influences may tend to bring about expressions that are discernibly similar despite their divergent media. Therefore, it is certainly possible tllat concomitant use of the visual arts may enhance the aural perception and understanding of music in areas where legitimate commonality exists. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy of employing examples from the visual arts as an aid to the development of broad stylistic concepts in music. Stylistic concepts, frequently mentioned as a major goal of general music and appreciation classes, may be defined as ideas about the predominant musical characteristics of a given composer's work, of a style period, or of a musical era. In effect, these characteristics allow the hearer to relate a musical example to what it represents and belongs. TIle study was conceived to provide answers to the following questions: 1. Can visual arts exemplars be used to advantage in the development of the more abstract aural concepts concerned with musical style periods?