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Musical Iconography and Sketches
in the National Gallery:
Street Musicians by Lillian Freiman and
Orchestra Sketch by Pegi Nicol
by Francine Sarrasin
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Yet this musician, we feel, is far from representing an
absence of sound. Rather, he is density, force, depth, and
reflection - all fundamentally positive values that play a role in
the dialectic of the picture, just as does music. This realization
picks up our argument and brings us back full circle to the instant
of blowing, the pivotal instant of life and music. The musician, who
generates within himself the air to be blown through the cylinder of
his instrument, needs a split second to respond to the conductor's
signals. Thus there is always a minute gap between breath and sound.
This is particularly true in the case of instruments with a double
reed, such as the oboe and bassoon. Silence is indeed a positive
value, if one thinks of the natural phrasing written in music and of
pauses for breathing. Furthermore, we see an inevitable link between
this silence and the suspended profile, without an instrument, in
the upper right-hand corner of the sketch. Who is this figure? Any
and every hypothesis is plausible: conductor, rapt listener,
far-off and mysterious muse, symbol of music imprinted on a
medallion, the guiding star or patron of music and musicians. This
profile in itself would appear mute, to judge clinically by the
closed mouth; yet is it not tempting to see in it the signature of
the artist? Sparingly drawn presence, significant size, and
accomplished contrast - this empty and incomplete outline brings to
our attention a closed mouth, and what this mouth says is the sketch
in a nutshell. There is no ear, no seeing eye. It is the mouth that
enables us to hear, through its own silence, the music depicted
below. An early warning sentry, this presence remains, nonetheless,
discreet. It is the QED of the rational theorem, the seal, the
artist's trademark.
Nowhere in this exploration of images have we mentioned how the
iconographic motif of instruments and musicians consistently
contradicts the subject matter. We have not yet mentioned how the
general application of the ink, the lines of the sketch, and the
running wash make themselves felt in the comprehension, signs, and
symbols of the sketch. Nor have we drawn the reader's attention to
how the rare and tenuous colour flows between a bluish-grey and
beige, to the fact that the sequence of sketches from life was not
sparingly executed, the corrections of features being clearly
visible. We know that the artist preferred to use watercolour for
her initial sketches and then compose oil sketches on the same theme
on wood panel, before attempting them in oil on canvas. (11)
If the moment of Pegi Nicol's sketch is wedged in between music and
silence, if the human breath is at the point of producing sound,
it is because the artist's sketch has taken on a burst of speed and
snatched from music the precious instant belonging to it, the
"split second before" that unleashes the marvellous and
makes everything possible!
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