Relating Music and Art

Curated by Becky Reilly

I might be biased because I played this piece for a piano recital, but I love Chopin's music.  He searches for technical perfection and yet still conveys the unbridled emotion characteristic of the Romantic period.  His "Op. 10 No. 4 (Étude in #C Minor)" and Théodore Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa actually have much in common.  The roiling, disquieting left-hand rolls that begin at 0:18 are the same waves that rock the raft, and both the piece and painting are painstakingly composed but still violent and sweeping.

Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa was inspired by a shipwreck off the coast of Mauritania.  Only fifteen members survived, engaging in cannibalism and shocking the public upon their return.  Géricault shows a moment in which the desperate sailors finally see their savior.  The artist went to great lengths to forge an accurate rendering of the event, speaking with survivors, visiting morgues to learn to paint the dead, verifying the raft's exact dimensions, reading newspaper articles, and attending the captain's trial.  For all his research, he still romanticizes some aspects.  Many of the figures look uncharacteristically healthy, and the poses and chiaroscuro echo earlier movements, almost like a history painting.  But the mix of utter despair and hope are shocking and real.

Chopin's études, like other musician's, were designed for students to study and practice certain techniques -- in this case, velocity.  There are few sustained notes throughout the piece.  He opts instead to write lines of rapid sixteenth notes.  Mastery of an étude means executing it with perfect technique.  The expression comes from the speed, accents, and dynamics.  I find these two works related and interesting because of the intricacies of their creation and careful composition that, opposite the restrained Neoclassical style, instead builds into emotional maelstrom.