what songs do i think of when i look at turners.
good question.
ill try to stick to the same paintings i talked about back around march, might add a few more.
im going to actually do hyperlinks, maybe ill learn their value.
self portrait- the grid-phillip glass. is he coming forth or going hence? probably coming forh
The fighting Temeraire- neighborhood #3 (power's out)-arcade fire- because the violin arrangement is being dragged along behind the rhythm and battery. industry vs enlightenment.
Snow storm: Hannibal and his army cross the Alps- crystal visions-the big pink- psychedalic, but what wasnt psychadelic about all those guys coming over the alps with elephants, looking like fools? talk about the meeting of hubris and frustration. hannibal is portrayed as comically tiny. the chorus is perfect. do you know the way to the silver covered road/by the city thats run dry/to the secret covered horse/and they're waiting for us to arrive.
Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon coming on- de natura Sonoris no. 2-penderecki- it just sounds like a shark attack from the perspective of someone watching from a boat. even has some ship's bell sort of effects thrown in. heat of the day too.
Modern Rome, Campo Vacino- 1901-Phoenix- i got to see this painting last summer (well i guess i saw all of these last summer) at the scottish national gallery with a big Turner in Italy exhibit they had running. it was good, cause to be honest down south in london they kind of want you to think that all turner ever did was english historical landscape watercolors. turns out thats wrong. so yeah, 1901. youre sitting on this hill, which to me is kind of like this hill, which is where i spent a good part of a month reading roberto bolano, kafka, jan neruda and kundera. you show up on the hill, hit play, and 15 seconds later the song really starts. that gap makes what youre seeing seem broad.
Rain, Steam and Speed- i've seen it all-bjork- a great train song. the rhythm in the song is the sound of a train along a track. not so limited in scope, as the strings and bjork lift the song a lot higher than a heavy train bound to rails.
Wreckers Coast of Northumberland- Venus in Furs-the velvet underground-I'm ceaselessly fascinated by the wreckers, whether they be on the cornish, scottish or northumbrian coasts. basically these were people who would take over lighthouses, cut their lights, and instead set up decoy lights designed to confuse the navigators of ships out at sea to the point where they would become lost and crash their ships onto rocks near the beach. the wreckers would then go out and plunder the ships. id love to write a novel on the topic.
thats good for now