Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Interviewees
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Faith, Belief and Post-Secularism
- I MEDIEVALISM TO POST-SECULARISM
- 1 Music, Morality and Meaning: Our Medieval Heritage
- 2 Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs
- 3 Eye Music
- Interlude I. ‘O Sisters Too’: Reviving the Medieval in Post-Secular Britain
- II THE HUMAN MIND AND SOCIETY
- III BELIEF AND UNBELIEF
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
3 - Eye Music
from I - MEDIEVALISM TO POST-SECULARISM
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 September 2019
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Interviewees
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Faith, Belief and Post-Secularism
- I MEDIEVALISM TO POST-SECULARISM
- 1 Music, Morality and Meaning: Our Medieval Heritage
- 2 Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs
- 3 Eye Music
- Interlude I. ‘O Sisters Too’: Reviving the Medieval in Post-Secular Britain
- II THE HUMAN MIND AND SOCIETY
- III BELIEF AND UNBELIEF
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Painting is the grandchild of nature. It is related to God.
There are many responses to the music of faith in our society today. Music has the power to move us deeply and to inspire us. Some responses to powerful and inspirational music are eloquent, beautiful and artistic expressions in their own right. One example is the work of the Wiltshire-born artist Janet Boulton who, in recent years, has been working on an artistic project known as ‘Eye Music’. It is Janet's motivation, faith and inspiration that form the focus of this chapter. For me, Janet's ‘Eye Music’ project beautifully captures the relationship between music and faith. The artistic connection between the sung notes within Christian liturgy, particularly in the service of Tenebrae in Holy Week, is explored in a personal way, recognising the movement, both within the liturgy and within the heart of the believer, from darkness to light, from despair to hope. My research into this interconnectedness between sacred music, its impact on a congregation or audience, and the subsequent artistic expression of that experience in visual art has been hugely advanced by knowing Janet and her work, and learning of the fascinating motivation and meaning of this important project.
The ‘Eye-Music’ series of watercolour/collage and paper-pulp reliefs are inspired by the idea of graphic musical notation. Janet writes that she
has combined observations of a still life installed in a window (comprising five plate glass shelves and rows of jam jars) with the forms of musical notation used in early medieval plainchant. In a process of deconstruction and re-invention, with music strongly in mind, she has made images which are intended to be seen independently as well as being a source of musical inspiration. Although there are no specifications for instrument/s or interpretation she became increasingly conscious whilst making the pictures of the spatial and tonal potential of sound.
Joe Scarffe writes of her work:
Janet Boulton refers to her collection as ‘Eye-Music’, but it is important to recognize that she is using the term in a special way. Technically speaking ‘Augenmusik’ (eye music) is the ‘practice of utilizing graphics to embellish staff notation, with a largely graphic or typographic function, in order to reinforce the affective meaning of the music.’
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Music and FaithConversations in a Post-Secular Age, pp. 64 - 74Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2019