PAINTING AND MUSIC
From time to time I am inspired to create a piece of
music from one of the paintings of Russian artist Nicholas Roerich (1874 -
1947). I began to give public performances of improvisations featuring a
selection of coloured transparencies of Roerich's artworks based upon a common
theme in 1977 with an extra set of coloured transparencies leant to myself by
Kenneth Archer. I also lived in an upstairs flat above a shop in Hornsey, North
London, with my young family (from 1976 - 1983) and had my musical equipment set
up permanently in what would have been the living room with three large
sash-cramp windows facing onto the road outside. I would often wake in the
middle of the night and feel inspired to play and would often record these
improvisations. In February of 1978 I was inspired to improvise upon the
painting Pink Mountains by Professor. Roerich. This might have been the first
time that I chose one painting for an improvisation - I'm not entirely sure.
Certainly, from this time onwards such occurrences grew.
My method of working consisted of taking a colour
transparency of the postcard of the painting and projecting it onto the wall so
that as I moved around my equipment I could catch sight of it at any time
(rather than a postcard on the floor - that system I had used earlier) to renew
my inspiration. My objective was to work in several ways. One would be to relate
the colours produced by my instruments with those in the painting. Another was
to work with the symbolism of the paintings alongside the inner-world meanings
of several of my sacred instruments, or, indeed, any of them. Whilst my musical
offerings would be in the nature of an improvisation yet these were
circumscribed by virtue of the energies and meanings found within each single
painting. This means that they were more in the nature of a composition than
pure spontaneous or free improvisations. I had spent years studying the nature
of the effects of my instruments upon the several planes of life - etheric,
astral, mental, buddhic, nirvanic planes. My choice of sounds was also directed
by these studies so that something of a translation of the spiritual nature of
the energies within the painting could be found within the sonic improvisation.
I was interested not in creating music with paintings in the background neither
with paintings with music in the background but rather an synthesis of the two
artistic disciplines in order to reflect something of the meditative inner-world
realms of spiritual inspiration within both art forms.
There are a number of ways that I go about working
with these elements. I can take a piece of music and choose paintings to go with
it; or take a painting and create music to go with it (as with my new CD
Messenger of Beauty); or, again, take a theme and choose piece of music in tune
with that theme and then a series of paintings to go with the piece. Then,
again, sometimes a painting is selected in category one above because of its
relation to the Theme and its dynamic energy related to the music and its place
within the piece. Most music moves between sections of dynamic intensity and
then inner calm or any other pair of opposites / complementaries and this
in-breathing or out-breathing needs to be complemented by the choice of painting
and its dominant colours, dynamic, or tone. The subtle energy of the colours
(that is to say their psychological or spiritual characteristics) and the
significance of the shape or form within the space as also any meaning or
significant message behind the symbolism or associations of the theme of the
painting. For instance, paintings linked with Maitreya Buddha, Shambhala, or
Thangla (a mountain range associated with Shambhala by Roerich although mostly
his paintings of these peaks would seem simply to be a mountain range to the
casual observer - except perhaps the painting 'Song of Shambhala'). Otherwise,
paintings depicting those beings who are representative of the peaks of humanity
- Christ, Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, Lao-Tse, Zoroaster, Milarepa,
Tsong-Kha-Pa, Nargarjuna, St. Sergius, St. Francis, etc. Certain legends are
depicted - such as in 'Chintamani' and the painting 'Miracle', or, again,
paintings connected with Agni Yoga (a series of teachings brought through by his
wife Helena Roerich and published in many volumes).
So a vocabulary comprising a collection of
correspondences and a range of playing techniques, including psychoacoustics,
and a range of instruments from large gongs to tiny singing bowls covering most
octaves, Tibetan Bells & Tibetan cymbals, colour psychology and esoteric
colour theories, along with healing applications of sound and colour, are
utilised in synthesising these two media.
Below the sequence of paintings from 1983 starting
with AGNI YOGA were for a project entitled SOUL EMANATIONS OF A GREAT ONE. For
that I loosely grouped Roerich's paintings around the theme of the 12 signs of
the Zodiac. For more on that project please click HERE
NEW
If you would like to explore this idea
further and see how it works out in practise there are seven audio-visuals each featuring a selection of the paintings
of Nicholas Roerich alongside the mediation music of Frank on his Tibetan
Singing Bowls, Tibetan Bell's, Gongs, etc, on youtube
free to view.
Either click on youtube
here (above) or visit their site and Search for:- Frank Perry.
If you have an interest in the relationship that
musicians or composers have found between particular paintings or the works of
particular artists and their own musical creativity then you may wish to follow
the links below where you will be able to view the paintings concerned alongside
a short clip of the music as this manifests itself in my own work.
FROM BEYOND (1982)
FIRE BLOSSOM (1984)
NORTHERN MIDNIGHT (1996)