Amanda DeSalme- Music's Imagery

"'Pictorial art' is a convenient expression, though hardly a happy one. It is wrong to limit the power of representation to painting and sculpture, in the face of the fact that it belongs beyond doubt, as a major component of the other arts, such as dance and, above all, literature, and is actually lacking only in music." -Van der Leeuw, p. 155

I disagree with this statement. Music uses imagery just as much as the other arts do. Claude Debussy for example spent all of his efforts in his compositions trying to find just the right "color" for the pieces he composed. When giving directions to a musical ensemble of any sort, tell them to play or sing while thinking "yellow" and then while thinking "red." You will get very different results. Have you ever listened to a piece of music while closing your eyes and pictured a story? There are so many timbres and ways to manipulate sounds that images just come into your head while you are listening. Sergei Prokofiev illustrated a story in "Peter and the Wolf," using different instruments to represent different animals. (the bird represented by a flute, the cat by a clarinet, the duck by an oboe, the grandfather by a bassoon, and so on.) Disney's movie Fantasia uses animation artists to recreate the imagery they imagine when listening to the classical pieces they chose to use. Music is connected to representation just as much as the other arts that Van der Leeuw mentions. I don't think he truly understands music as much as he does the other arts, because music is in no way lacking the element of representation. Listen to Debussy's "Nuages" and you will picture clouds floating in a summer sky. Music inspires "pictorial artists" to create, and vice versa. Debussy created his symphony "La Mer" because he was inspired by Japanese Artist Katsushika Hokusai's depiction of The Great Wave. (pictured above). This ability of music to create such images while listening to it is part of what makes it so powerful, and holy. We must not underestimate music's abilities. All of the arts are connected. The ocean can inspire a dance, a painting, a sculpture, architecture, a poem, a drama, and yes, a piece of music. All arts seek to represent things in a new light, sometimes coming across something very ethereal, awe-inspiring, and holy.