Arabesque

An arabesque is a pattern on tapestry for instance that is intricate and interwoven.  Here is one perhaps seminal expression of the pattern and reading about it some this morning I found out that it s a. an Islamic form or from that heritage and there is a "western" form of it that probably is more Moorish and turned up in the Mediterranean costal European societes; Spain, south France, Italy which is even more intricate.

 

While we are thinking of the holidays, and dance - swirls and twirls..well we couldn't resist coming to this.

Debussy, the French composer, wrote a couple pieces called Arabesques in about 1888. We know this because some among us was something of a Debussy studier- a  dissertation area - and his early works, this one below for instance, appealed to us and still does to this day.  Debussy was from  a region in France that had this Moorish influence and he was also taken by Spain and all things Spanish - including of course these so it is no wonderment that he would evoke and invoke a tapestry.

Enjoy.

Verticals and Blurs

Dock areas are something pretty linear in the morning light and calm water.  After too many episodes of Joy of Painting, one tends to note the pure vertical lines that reflect out to a soft blur, sometimes it being hard to find the spot where reality ends and reflection begins. Long time back in an art history class we talked about this and someone had to give a paper on the musical equals to the painted picture. We remember noting a couple things, not the least was that painters could easily compose a painting that went from one to the other and in essence use multiple techniques in one work; if this photo were a painting it wouldn't be considered bad technique to go from the clarity to the blurr - its just the way it is when it is seen - and that the overall is the work; not the technique.

In music - in composition of music - it is that fight to keep your compositional technique "pure" to one style or stylistic method that is the trick. At the turn of the last century there was a battle in technique between those who wrote music of reflections and those who composed like the docks - all vertical and clearly etched.

Two French composers, Ravel and Debussy wrote in both styles but the most successful pieces from each are clearly shoreline and reflection figurative speaking. See if you can spot which is which.