Music Mosaic: "The Moldau" by Bedrich Smetana

These images are sequentially ordered based on the musical movements existent in the above-mentioned piece.

 Independent Joy

 Joy in Seeing a Bit of Reality

 Independence of Adolescence

 Joy in Routine

 The Paradigm Shift -or- Something's Missing

 Selfless Love/Desire

 Parenthood -or- Infancy Reprise

 Familial Trial

The Third Act, Death, and Finale

These images are my work in association with the orchestral piece titled "The Moldau" by Bedrich Smetana.  They are, in a sense, sequential, as they are a reading of the musical journey that the composer takes the listener on.  This reading is highly subjective, and is exclusively what came to my mind as I listened to the piece several times.

Annie Dillard's article, "Seeing" addresses the child-like spontaneity of art that truly caries something unique and/or touching.  In my images, I tried to tap into what made the music's auditory nature so interesting, and I think that it really shines right at the first movement.  The introductory notes have a sense of childhood to them, which always made me feel like a small person discovering an ordinary thing for the first time.  There is something wonderful about the world when you first see it and experience it for yourself.  Therefore, I tried to capture that in the first two images, as a child is born, seizes life with all available strength, and finds joy in seeing the subtleties of ordinary life.

The following images contrast the idea of dynamic space and flat space.  Several photographers utilize deep space to increase the feeling of adventure.  The third image is the adventure of an adolescent that is oblivious to danger.  The fourth image is plastered against a flat surface to accentuate the routine life style of a young-professional adult.  The juxtaposition of these two styles draws upon Danny Cohen's work on films like The King's Speech.  He often plays on the emotional depth of deep space as well as the mundane or ordinary feeling of flat space.

As the archetypal subject of the journey continues, he senses a lacking feeling, which lead him to true romance.  Both of these feelings are portrayed in the music, as there is an emptiness, and then a sound of slow and enjoyable melodic lines [around 6:20min.].

Finally, the narrative comes full circle with the reprise of the infant's theme, represented by the images of fatherhood.  The music is faster than the last time this theme was featured, which accentuates the joy of both infancy and fatherhood while simultaneously suggesting the stressful nature of the latter.

Familial stresses such as finances, raising an adolescent, and marital conflicts represent the sound featured at about the 10:00 minute mark of the piece.  The final image [11:10min. to end] takes the spirit of the old man through death and onto resurrection.  I used motifs of color throughout the images to suggest certain patterns and emotions such as energy, jealousy, and more.

I hope that there is more to read into why I used certain color, line quality, contrast, etc. which the reader may draw upon to understand some of my thoughts behind these works.