Elements of Music vs Elements and Principles of Art

[nafmeadmin]

I am intregrating my Music Perfromance classes with an Arts and Carreer Technical Pathway. Some of the Arts Elements and Principles translate to Musical Elements however, many do not. They instead relate strongly to some specific instance or technique of a Musical Element. I am using 7 Elements of Music as my basis of comparison: Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, Timbre, Form, Texture, and Dynamics.

Any suggestions? Has this already been done (it seems to me that the subject must have been approached) before? A reference to a published book or article wood be extremely helpful.
Thanks

[nafmeadmin]

Get on Google images; find an art work that has lotsa color, etc. After viewing the art work, tell students to write down what they saw. Take their answers and put ’em on a whiteboard, chalkboard, transparency- anything that lets ’em SEE their responses. Write everyone’s responses- see groupings of ideas. Try non-representational art works-engage their imagination.

Eventually they SHOULD come up with elements, like color, form, shape, repetition of shapes, etc. I do that with my college-level music appreciation classes at the beginning of the semester, in the opening chapters of the text, which deal with elements of music. Bennet Riemer opened my eyes several years ago, when he showed an art work and asked “How is color used in this art work?” and How about shapes- are there repeated shapes? Is there a rhythm shown in the art work?”

Just thught of this: Picasso’s “Nude Descending a Staircase” would be great for rhythm, repetition of shapes, etc.! You will surely think of others.

Following that classroom learning experience, move on to music and let the students make the connections between plastic art and musical art. Trust ’em! They will..

Best Wishes,

Carl Smith

[nafmeadmin]

I think the elements of music really relate fairly easily to the elements of art. Form and texture might be the most obvious, but melody might be the subject of a picture. Some pictures have more than one subject, and some have none, similar to melody in music. Rhythm coincides with visual patterns, timbre could be the medium used in combination with how it is used, and dynamics could be size/scale or direction.

And just for clarity of information, “Nude Descending a Staircase” is by Marcel Duchamp. That’s one of my favorites, and it’s a great representation of “rhythmic” art.

[Author]

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