Three Brushstrokes on La Grande Jatté
(1996) 10:00
(Wind Band)
Commissioned by Marshfield High School Band, Marshfield, MA, Gregoray Mayer, Director
Level - High School/College
Un Dimanche d'été a I'lle de la Grande Jatte by George Seurat (1859-), perhaps one of the most recognized paintings of this Impressionist artist, depicts the Isle de Grande Jatte on a Sunday afternoon. The painting hangs in the Chicago Art Institute, where its immediate subject is clear at once: "It is four o'clock on Sunday afternoon in the dog-days. On the river the swift bark darts to and fro. On the island itself, a Sunday population has come together at random, and from a delight in the fresh air, among the trees. Seurat has treated his forty or so figures in summary and hieractic style, setting them up frontally or with their backs to us in profile, seated at right-angles, stretched out horizontally, or bolt upright..." Fénéon.
"Seurat was too sedate to like the Grand Jatte as it really was on a Sunday. His famous picture is very well composed, but it shows a Grande Jatte that has gone prim and level-headed and lost its appetites." Gustave Coquiot.
"For the island at this time was both a genuine working-class background and a place to which fashionables and persons of consequences liked to come on the sly."
This marvelous painting is presented here in music through three settings
Part I-The Big Picture-features a French-like melody of both a frivolous and somber nature, not unlike the sentiments projected by the figures in the painting. This section is in focus and its elements are clearly defined. This section represents the painting when viewed from a distance
Part 11.-Points-presented the original French-like melody, set as the result of staccato pinpoints of sound. This represents the detail of the painting-a closeup of the artwork shows small points of paint and color, which combine to outline figures only from a distance. The original melody can be heard over the pitter-patter of the pointalistic instrument chatter.
Part 111.-Smears-represents the rough sketch that Seurat made for La Grande Jatte. This sketch, entitled Equisse d'Ensemble, is one-third the size of La Grande Jatte and is fuzzy and blurred in the wonderful way of the Impressionistic school. No longer points, the smears and dabs of color stretch to offer objects and figures without detail. The music follows suit, presenting micro-lines of melody which combine to make a writhing tapestry of harmony, over which are set lines of the original melody. This might represent the middle-ground of the painting-the objective impression obtained from a location neither so far away as to weaken the detail, nor so close as to diffuse the subjects.
(1996) 10:00
(Wind Band)
Commissioned by Marshfield High School Band, Marshfield, MA, Gregoray Mayer, Director
Level - High School/College
Un Dimanche d'été a I'lle de la Grande Jatte by George Seurat (1859-), perhaps one of the most recognized paintings of this Impressionist artist, depicts the Isle de Grande Jatte on a Sunday afternoon. The painting hangs in the Chicago Art Institute, where its immediate subject is clear at once: "It is four o'clock on Sunday afternoon in the dog-days. On the river the swift bark darts to and fro. On the island itself, a Sunday population has come together at random, and from a delight in the fresh air, among the trees. Seurat has treated his forty or so figures in summary and hieractic style, setting them up frontally or with their backs to us in profile, seated at right-angles, stretched out horizontally, or bolt upright..." Fénéon.
"Seurat was too sedate to like the Grand Jatte as it really was on a Sunday. His famous picture is very well composed, but it shows a Grande Jatte that has gone prim and level-headed and lost its appetites." Gustave Coquiot.
"For the island at this time was both a genuine working-class background and a place to which fashionables and persons of consequences liked to come on the sly."
This marvelous painting is presented here in music through three settings
Part I-The Big Picture-features a French-like melody of both a frivolous and somber nature, not unlike the sentiments projected by the figures in the painting. This section is in focus and its elements are clearly defined. This section represents the painting when viewed from a distance
Part 11.-Points-presented the original French-like melody, set as the result of staccato pinpoints of sound. This represents the detail of the painting-a closeup of the artwork shows small points of paint and color, which combine to outline figures only from a distance. The original melody can be heard over the pitter-patter of the pointalistic instrument chatter.
Part 111.-Smears-represents the rough sketch that Seurat made for La Grande Jatte. This sketch, entitled Equisse d'Ensemble, is one-third the size of La Grande Jatte and is fuzzy and blurred in the wonderful way of the Impressionistic school. No longer points, the smears and dabs of color stretch to offer objects and figures without detail. The music follows suit, presenting micro-lines of melody which combine to make a writhing tapestry of harmony, over which are set lines of the original melody. This might represent the middle-ground of the painting-the objective impression obtained from a location neither so far away as to weaken the detail, nor so close as to diffuse the subjects.