Prompt #14: Folk Art Flavours

Cultures are kind of like ice cream flavours. In Eastern Kentucky, things “taste” the same to me. Lilting fiddle tunes and old ballads and quilt patterns and whimsical folk carvings have some kind of existential relationship that is difficult to describe. The same thing is true here in Scotland. Whirling Celtic patterns (see below), tartan, sorrowful airs, and old tunes all taste like mint chocolate chip. Or blackberry cream. Or chocolate caramel. I don’t know, but you take my meaning!

Music and visual art/architecture have many shared qualities, particularly when they emerge from the same place, informed by the same cultural context. “Place” is immensely important to the development of folk. As the mountainous Appalachian landscape informs folk art and music, so too does the Scottish highlands and coastline inform Scottish culture.

In the Kelvingrove Museum, I spent an hour perusing a collection of work by a group of early-20th century painters who referred to themselves as “The Glasgow Boys”. They collectively rejected the romantic academic conventions of the time in favor of naturalism, impressionism, and plein air painting, with a focus on scenes from the life of common Scottish folks. I’ve included a few of their paintings below. The Glasgow Boys are not “folk artists” because they received academic training in their medium. But their work does possess a folk flavour. Many of the paintings by artists in the group exhibit a deep connection to the land and respect for Scottish heritage. Their work reminds me of Su-a Lee’s music. Though she is classically trained, her arrangements and the compositions she chooses to play reference Scottish music and recall Scottish landscapes.

Su-a Lee’s music and the Glasgow Boys’ paintings share thematic elements. But what formal elements might unite their work? Each of the six formal elements of music (melody, harmony, rhythm, timbre, texture, and form) can be thought of as mapping to elements of visual art. 

Below, I have given a musical and artistic definition (in that order) of each of the six formal elements:

MELODY

The tune of a song

The subject of a painting (what is represented)

HARMONY

The supporting, enriching sounds above and below the melody

The other elements in a painting that give the central subject context and meaning (background, setting, etc,)

RHYTHM

The way music moves through time

The way the painting guides the viewer’s eye across the piece and the visual patterns

TIMBRE

The “color” of the sound of different musical instruments and the feelings they evoke

The color of the paint and the feelings it evokes

TEXTURE

The layering of melodic lines

The layering of transparent and opaque pigments and color and the way the paint is applied (brushstrokes)

FORM

The structure of a piece of music

The composition of a painting, the way it guides the viewer's eye

Based on these definitions, I recommend pairing Su-a Lee’s version of “Prince Charlie’s Last View of Scotland” with this Macaulay Stevenson painting Moonrise. 

Moonrise

Macaulay Stevenson

Oil on canvas

1892-1900

“Prince Charlie’s Last View of Scotland”

Traditional

Su-a Lee and Duncan Chisholm

2022

Moonrise shows birch trees in the moonlight; "Prince Charlie's Last View of Scotland" is a mournful melody in a minor key. The dark river, the hazy treeline shown in beautiful atmospheric perspective, and the pale moon surmounting all give context to the birch trees; the cello plays a low supporting harmony notes to give body to the fiddle melody. The birch trees, with their wavering vertical projections, provide a loose, hesitant visual rhythm; the lilting fiddle line often plays on the quarter note, but with grace notes and scalar embellishments that create a hazy sound. The hazy purples, browns, yellows, and blues of the painting against the stark brightness of the birches creates a sense of immediacy, yet unreachability; the timbre of the stringed instruments (played often with vibrato, pizzicato, and slides up to notes) conveys a feeling of yearning. The transparency of the pigments in the background emphasizes the thick, opaque texture of the spindly foreground trees; the deep, sometimes illusive cello part emphasizes the bright fiddle melody. The repetition of vertical lines guides the viewer's gaze up the trunk of the birch trees and to the moon, encouraging meditation on the atmosphere of the scene; the repetition of the central melody, with variations to the timbre and texture, encourages the listener to meditate on the mournful lament.

The song and painting are cut of the same cloth. They are the same flavour.