Van Gogh playing guitar

You can never understand or analyse a piece of art just by using words. Language is limited. That is why painters like Van Gogh expressed their feelings, emotions and thoughts through colours. This is the meaning of art – communicating through different mediums. Music is the same because music, in its most “basic” form, is Art – The art of communication. Birds probably invented music. We just copied and turned it into something else.

I wanted to explore the use of music as a mixture of art criticism, interpretation and translation from colours to notes. To create a dialogue that cannot exist in real life, but can be real in this virtual existence. Not only in literature, exchange of ideas can sometimes be hidden between the notes.

I recorded the following improvised piece while looking at Paul Gauguin’s painting of Van Gogh (1888), since this is a very deep dialogue between two painters about art itself. Obviously, focusing on the face area is almost a given. But the hand is also very eye-catching and full of movement although it looks still. The flowers are a bit gloomy however there are some glimpses of optimism. For me, brown is represented well by using the note ‘D’, while the different textures can be expressed by alternating between a few modes, like Dorian 4# and Aeolian, and blending them with other musical shades and some chords…

But what am I doing…? I should let the notes speak for themselves: