| | The
Art Nouveau score ___________
Cristina
Ariagno | |
| | In
the nineteenth century, with the development of lithographic printing, there was
a flourishing relationship between image and music. It developed particularly
in the art nouveau period thanks to the success and to the dissemination of songs
and opera arias, as well as to the increase in private ownership of pianos.e. |
|
Georges de Feure
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Musical
themes were often what influenced the figurative choices, however the female world
was undoubtedly the main subject: the mythical modern style woman in her conventionalised
and symbolic representation of the woman who was the main character in bourgeois
daily life, but also in the pre-Raphaelite woman in her exotic representation
and the heroic woman of melodrama.
All
of this underlined by the evocation of landscapes in the different seasons and
at various times of the day: light, climate, the open space on the boulevard,
the research into colour, Japanese stylisation, characteristic symbolist allusions
of art nouveau graphics. |
Walter
Crane - 1898
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The
first example which comes to mind is the relationship between graphics and the
music of Debussy. Just consider the score of LA MER- Durand 1905, whose cover
shows a detail of the famous xylography of the great wave of Hokusai (from the
series of the thirty-six views of mount Fuji)
It
would be impossible to mention all the artists called upon by the editors to draw
the covers for classical music scores or for songs, so we shall list just a few
of them: Eugène Grasset (photo), Adolfo Hohenstein (famous for the cover
of Verdi’s Falstaff), Jules Chéret, Henri Toulose-Lautrec, Pierre
Bonnard, Willette, Alphonse Mucha, Manuel Orazi, Metlicovitz, Paul Vidal, Gerges
de Feure...
Cristina Ariagno, taken from the book by Giovanni Fanelli
"MUSICA
ORNATA - Lo spartito Art Nouveau" (“DECORATED
MUSIC - The Art Nouveau score”) - Cantini publishers. |
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