Painting
for Pythagoras
1991
mixed media 60x30"
click
painting above to view the detail
I was thinking about creating an instrument that was a practical conundrum, impossible to play by logical definition, but pointing toward some experience beyond logic. Maybe there is a place for purely theoretical music, posited in the mind, yet beyond demonstration. Pythagoras saw a common principle ordering the universe, and he took great delight in finding principles tying different aspects of the world of appearances together. Five centuries before Christ, he showed that there is a direct connection between the length of a musical string and its pitch, and that musical tones can be arranged on that string by using precise mathematical relationships.This simple yet profound idea metaphorically refers, in a way, to the order of everything. Pythagoras took comfort in an appreciation of that order, and so do I.
This piece is constructed of both two and three-dimensional elements. The violin and bow are painted, but the strings and bridge are real. The strings are held in place with a peg block on the back of the panel.