The Pastoral in Music In Nature’s Mirror Monteverdi: Orfeo (1607), opening toccata and start of Act II Liceu, Barcelona. Furio Zanasi (Orfeo), Sara Mingardo (Messenger). Staged by Gilbert Deflo, conducted by Jordi Savall. — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mD16EVxNOM The Orfeo of Claudio Monteverdi (1567–1643), is the earliest opera still performed today. Fittingly, it is about Orpheus, the first musician. The first two acts, before Orpheus descends to the underworld, epitomize the Pastoral, full of madrigals and dances. We shall hear the opening toccata and then a scene from Act II, where the celebration is chilled by the Messenger telling of Euridice’s death from snakebite. Handel: Acis and Galatea (c.1720), end of Act I Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Danielle de Niese (Galatea), William Workman (Acis). Choreographed by Wayne McGregor, conducted by Christopher Hogwood. — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEN6jiZdqcU George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) was the greatest composer of Italian opera at the start of the 18th century. His pastoral, Acis and Galatea, was a lighter piece written in English, without the heroic pretensions of Italian opera. We shall see the end of Act I, where the lovers come together, in a modern-dress production that Class 1: A Map of Arcady nonetheless captures the pastoral element through dance. September 12, 2017 Ravel: Daphnis and Chloe (1912), opening and pas-de-deux Royal Ballet, London. Federico Bonelli (Daphnis), Alina Cojacaru (Chloe), choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton (1951). — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H1XSculJrRs After Pan made pipes from Syrinx’s reeds, he taught the shepherd Daphnis to play them. Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) wrote a score for the Diaghilev Ballet, with Nijinsky in the title role. In this version, with choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton, we see the Arcadian Pastoral transferred to its original locale in Greece. All the paintings, together with brief notes on the artists, will soon be available on my new website: http://www.brunyate.com/naturemirror/ A. Drawing Exercise in a painting by Poussin and two illustrations of the legend of Pan and Syrinx (from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, 7 CE) by Rubens. An exercise (not for public consumption!) in diagramming and drawing how you see yourself in relation to the world around you. 4. Barber: Landscape: the Golden Age (c.1820, Glasgow) If art is a way of figuring out man's relationship to existence, this is 5. Poussin: Bacchanal Before a Statue of Pan (1631, London NG) especially true of landscape, which works on the scale of all creation. 6. Rubens: Pan and Syrinx, oil sketch 7. Rubens and Jan Brueghel: Lscp. w/ Pan and Syrinx (c.1625, private) B. The Arcadian Pastoral We shall look at three pictures in the light of that exercise: one from E. The French Connection the 19th century, two from the renaissance. They illustrate the Claude and Poussin, two French painters who, more than any concept of the Arcadian Pastoral, as an ideal place where Man lives others, brought the Pastoral Landscape to its peak as a genre. in harmony with Nature, who freely offers her bounty. We shall see Working in Rome, however, their landscapes were not based on the how this originates in Greek mythology with the concept of the Age Greek Arcadia, but on the scenery and light of the Roman of Gold. However, we may also suspect the Renaissance of indulging campagna and the castelli romani, or hills behind the city. in “pastoral tourism,” perhaps with erotic intent! Claude’s influence was immense and unchallenged for almost two 1. Cole: The Arcadian or Pastoral State (1834, NY Historical Society) centuries; his subject matter, soft misty light, and principle of 2. Titian (or Giorgione?): Concert champêtre (1509, Paris Louvre) composition like a theatre stage with wings became the accepted classical style. C. Pastoral and Antipastoral: La tempesta Landscape plays a smaller part in Poussin’s career. While The third is a small painting, whose implications and ambiguities constructing his scenes in a similar manner, he is also more might stand in as an index to the course. Obviously it is related to dramatic than Claude, looking much as Giorgione had at the the Pastoral as seen in the Titian Concert. But in place of stability, it elements that seem a threat to stability. And it is Poussin who gave seems to suggest threat. Part of this is the sense of Nature as us the supreme expression of the connection between Pastoral and changeable, which we shall examine in the next class. But the Elegy, the painting Et in Arcadia Ego (“I also [was/am] in Arcadia”). storm suggests something larger than human scale, sublime, 8. Claude: View of the Campagna (1630s, London, British Museum) potentially terrifying—the subject of the second half of the course. 9. Claude: Pastoral Landscape (1650s) 3. Giorgione: La tempesta (c.1508, Venice, Accademia) 10. Claude: Lscp. w/ Nymph and Satyr Dancing (1641, Toledo) 11. Poussin: Lscp. w/ Orpheus and Euridice (c.1655, Paris Louvre) D. A Map of Arcady 12. Poussin: Stormy Lscp. w/ Pyramus and Thisbe (1651, Frankfurt) There are contradictions in the concept of Arcady as a lush, ordered 13. Poussin: Et in Arcadia Ego (c.1638, Paris Louvre) Eden. The Greek Poet Hesiod (around 700 BCE), who essentially established the Pastoral genre in his Works and Days, associated Artists’ Full Names and Dates: Giorgio del Castelfranco (Giorgione), this life with Arcadia, a region of Greece that is in fact rough and 1477–1510; Tiziano Vecellio (Titian), 1485–1576; Peter Paul Rubens, barren. Furthermore, it is the home of the nature god Pan, who 1577–1640; Nicolas Poussin, 1594–1665; Jan Brueghel the Younger, represents the wilder, less civilized animal urges. We shall see this 1601–76; Claude Gellée, 1604–82; Joseph Vincent Barber, 1788–1838; Thomas Cole, 1801–48. .