Monet's Haystacks by Josh Rosen, John Voigt

Claude Monet, as with other impressionist painters, is not painting objects as such, but instead is painting the light that carries the objects, here the twelve-to-fifteen-foot stacks of grain, to his eyes, mind, and memory. He had to work fast especially at sunrise or sunset for the sun was moving quickly and colors, forms, and their created moods easily would change in just a few seconds. The paramount thing for him was not to function like a photographic camera, but instead to capture the impressions of what he was seeing; internally bathe in its natural beauty, and then project that experience back to the painting’s viewer so that they might feel and sense what he was feeling and sensing. This is why painters and composers who do such things are said to be Impressionists.

Josh Rosen and I step into the process with our individualistic musical skills of instantaneous composer-improvisors. We carefully listen to each other (with no other musical score other than the image of the painting itself) as both of our eyes roam the digital reproductions of the canvas, each feeling out where the light came from, (in the paintings themselves), its reflections from place-to-place and object-to-object) and feeling its emotional presence. Painting is not usually a proper medium for the passage of time, but Claude Monet constantly and successfully uses time; (understand he thought it best to see the paintings of his “Haystack Series” in groups, in order to see their changes in the passage of time!) We as musicians must use time, as we do additionally in all four paintings in attempting a continuing referencing of Monet's progression of the sunlight or darkness in the sky.
- John Voigt

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