Dear reader,
Milwaukee!
I’m very excited to share this city with you, particularly because my expectations for what I would find here were far exceeded. I’ll get into that in a bit. First, some casual updates.
My studio is traveling well; everything feels dialed in. On Tuesday mornings I head to the theater and bring back my gear to be setup and calibrated. I break it all down again and bring it back to the theater on Sunday evening, just before our final show in each city.
A small joy, I discovered that its possible to take photos on iPhone via Apple Watch 🤯. Historically my museum excursions have always been done alone, but now, thanks to tech, you will start seeing some cheeky self-portraits.
Painting tl;dr
-
CITY:Milwaukee, WI -
MUSEUM:Milwaukee Art Museum -
PAINTING: -
ARTIST:Corrado Giaquinto -
OBSERVATION DATE:Dec 2, 2022
Music tl;dr
-
CITY:Minneapolis, MN -
HOTEL:Hampton Inn & Suites -
AUDIO SKETCH: -
COMPOSER:Niles Luther -
CREATION DATE:-
Dec 7, 2022
-
Dec 9, 2022
-
The Museum
Here, in Milwaukee WI, I found my favorite painting, in my favorite museum. This is truly remarkable to me, because of my aforementioned doubts on what I might find.
And yet, against my prevailing beliefs, this gem of a museum exists here. It is without a doubt, one of the highest quality museums I’ve ever visited.
Absolutely world-class.
In trying to understand why I had such a deeply emotional response to Milwaukee Art Museum, I prompted OpenAI’s ChatGPT with the following questions:
“Act like an architect historian. Who designed Milwaukee Art Museum and why is the design language of the building important? How does it affect the experience of the museum goers as they look at the art the building contains?”
Here was ChatGPT’s response:
As an architect historian, I can tell you that the Milwaukee Art Museum was designed by the world-renowned Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. Calatrava is known for his innovative and sculptural designs that often incorporate moving parts and organic forms. His design for the Milwaukee Art Museum is no exception.
The Milwaukee Art Museum's design language is important because it reflects Calatrava's unique style and approach to architecture. The building's most striking feature is its movable wings, which can be opened and closed to regulate light and temperature in the galleries. This feature not only serves a functional purpose, but it also creates a dynamic and visually stunning effect. When the wings are open, they resemble the wings of a bird in flight, while when they are closed, they give the building a more solid, monumental appearance.
The building's design language also extends to its interior, which features a grand staircase and a central atrium that provide a dramatic sense of space and light. The overall effect is one of elegance, innovation, and fluidity, which complements the museum's collection of art and helps to create a memorable experience for visitors.
For museum-goers, the building's design has a significant impact on their experience of the art. The grand staircase and central atrium create a sense of drama and anticipation, while the natural light and views of Lake Michigan help to connect visitors to the surrounding environment. The movable wings also provide a unique and ever-changing backdrop for the art, creating a sense of movement and dynamism that enhances the viewing experience.
Overall, Santiago Calatrava's design for the Milwaukee Art Museum is a testament to his skill and vision as an architect. Its unique design language and dynamic features make it an important landmark not only for Milwaukee but for the world of architecture and art as well.
Elegance, innovation, and fluidity… I mean look:
As I made my way down the Schroeder Galleria and into the permanent collection of European works, I had an encounter with a group of individuals, that I happen to know, who shall remain nameless.
It was highly distressing; my solitude felt compromised, the very air of my newfound sanctuary tainted by the decibel of their voices, shattering the calm I was so deeply relishing.
However, despite my extreme distaste for many things I have witnessed living life on the road, I actually have a surfeit of gratitude that I am under the aegis of the Les Misérables National Tour.
This tour has afforded me so much: the ability to travel the country with my studio, the ability to eat consistently and have a committed routine, the ability to DCA a respectable amount of ETH each week. These things are valuable to me. I think however, the biggest gift the tour has given me is my reclamation of wonder. Every week I get to travel to a new city, see a new museum, discover new art, and every-time, everywhere, if I search with care, there is beauty.
A director of a major New York museum once suggested that I shift my focus away from scoring contemporary paintings and work with the past— musical recontexualizations of old paintings for the modern world. At the time I couldn’t hear their words, but it is clear to me now why they said what they said.
I had been so dead set on scoring contemporary paintings that my focus was on financializing art music without having actually made it yet. I can say now that most contemporary art actually feels very foreign to me. I love and appreciate a lot of it, but it doesn’t sit comfortably for me in the way that I feel when engaging with works from the 17-19th century. I feel at home in these centuries; I understand them.
The Rape of Europa
It’s been quite a bit of fun to start so many new compositions simultaneously. I’m aiming for 30 composition .wavs for the final NFT collection. At least 20.
This painting however, The Rape of Europa, is the first one that I’ve seriously started scoring… the other 6 or 7 paintings have remained untranscribed voice memos on my phone, waiting to be developed further. Unlike the other compositions thus far, this music is not sad. I mean it is in d minor, but its not a drag, its not another damn largo. I don’t know why I always write sad slow music. Perhaps its because there’s something in me that aches, something deep in my heart that’s broken. Happy stuff just doesn’t interest me.
I’m hoping I’ll have a chance to work on the other voice memo audio sketches when I make it to Montana. From Dec 19th, to Jan 9th I’ll be laid off from the tour because of a union mandate, called Rule 24, which requires the company to hire local players in cities they stay in for longer than three weeks. I’ll spend my time off near Glacier National Park, just south of the Canadian border. Montana is my spiritual home, the nature there is renewing, and I have a deep love for the cold, snowy winters. I also have a wonderful community of friends who I stay with. I try to visit once a year, and they always offer me a warm, loving, and safe space.
Look at the face on this bull, its an absolute menace. This is intense subject matter: rape, loss of innocence, the gift of divine power from the lightning god himself. The birthing of a nation, Europe no less, not to mention the beauty of the color, the richness of the detail, the variety in the composition, it is all extraordinarily captivating. I can’t leave out the companion work, The Triumph of Galatea, which is why I’ll be scoring two paintings from this museum.
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Myron Laskin M1970.68.1
Conservation sponsored by the Fine Arts SocietyConservation of this painting sponsored by the Fine Arts Society
Wall text for The Rape of Europa. Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin
Musical Response
The following music NFT is my initial response to Corrado Giaquinto's The Rape of Europa, recorded on Dec 7, 2022 via voice memo at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Minneapolis, MN. The cover art is a sineprint (a graphed room frequency response) of my room in the hotel.
It was so clear to me that there was turmoil and paradox in this painting, and that it must be captured sonically. I wanted to create that juxtaposition by having the strings play a restless motif to embody the bull, or Zeus. The english horn (whose part has not yet been composed) will represent Europa, singing along atop that restless bed.
The Triumph of Galatea
This painting is a companion to The Rape of Europa, also found on this wall. The two subjects from classical mythology were often paired in the eighteenth century, working together to produce a visual poem.
At a basic level, the subject matter allowed the artist, Corrado Giaquinto, to paint beautiful young women in dynamic compositions that had wide appeal. For the educated patron, ancient myths provided the artist with the opportunity to explore more complex themes, such as moral struggle (as in Galatea riding in triumph on a porpoise-drawn sled even after her love is killed) and transformation (as in the god Zeus taking the shape of the bull in The Rape of Europa).
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Myron Laskin M1970.68.2
Wall text for The Triumph of Galatea. Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin
Musical Response
The following music NFT is my initial response to Corrado Giaquinto's The Triumph of Galatea, recorded on Dec 9, 2022 via voice memo at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Minneapolis, MN. The cover art is a sineprint (a graphed room frequency response) of my room in the hotel.
Galatea, in her grace, elegance, boldness, courage and strength fits the majesty of brass perfectly in my imagination. Specifically, I wanted a solo french horn to play the main motif alone, almost like a hunting call, before the composition develops further.
That’s all for now.
Most sincerely,
Niles Luther