Art and Music Side by Side
Westfield
Teachers Merge Models
By
Katie Farenthold
(This article
originally appeared in the April 1 edition of Westfield High
School's award-winnning student weekly Hi's Eye.)
This year, students from "Art I" and "Writing and Arranging II" are working on a collaborative project that combines art and music, asking them to be inspired by the creations of others.
The project began in January with Mr. Roy Chambers' three "Art I" classes. The students listened to music of difference genres and created abstract paintings in response to the music they heard. After the paintings were complete, Mr. Raymond Wojcik's "Writing and Arranging II" students each chose a painting by which they were inspired. Their task was to create a piece of music in response to the art.
Chambers and Wojcik developed this project in response to the "model project" set out for teachers at the beginning of the year. The goal this year was for teachers from different departments to work together to expose their students to parts of learning that they might not have otherwise experienced. While Chambers and Wojcik worked together to create this project, they were each influenced by completely different things.
Chambers created this endeavor in response to the Russian painter *Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky experienced a condition known as synesthesia, which literally means "joined senses." The condition has many variations, but for Kandinsky, his sense of sight and hearing were connected. Whenever he heard a pitch, he would see a color. In the same way, when he saw a color, he would hear a different pitch in his head. The "Art I" students attempted to have their minds work in the same way while they created their pieces.
The collaboration was also prompted by Wojcik's own professional work as a classical composer. He is working with the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts in conjunction with the Bay-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra to create music inspired by the artwork of students from the Cape May area. On Thursday, May 26, the Bay-Atlantic Symphony, led by conductor Jed Gaylin, will perform Wojcik's Cape May Reflections II, based on these paintings. The performance will take place in the Cape May Convention Hall at 8:00 pm as part of the Cape May Music Festival.
For the "Writing and Arranging" students, the WHS project is a miniature version of the professional work done by their teacher.
The goal of the project is to have the students' work be part of the Spring Instrumental Concert on Thursday, May 19. The "Writing and Arranging" students will perform their pieces while the art that inspired them is projected for the audience. Both teachers are looking forward to the occasion.
Chambers said, "This project was exciting to me because it combined two of my loves, and it gave me better insight into the natural connection between visual art and music."