![]() For example, da Vinci compared the “water veins” of the Earth to the blood vessels of the human body. The small bird against the lush landscapes represents da Vinci’s obsession with the inter-connectedness of the microcosm and macrocosm. They whir and spin in their own time, creating a fantastic soundtrack to the lively imagery in the sixth movement.įollowing these inventions we are guided into the splendor of the natural world, beginning with a gorgeous duet between the clarinet and an animation of da Vinci’s sketches of a bird. The little machines come to life in beautiful animations on the screen, and I invented my own little musical machines to accompany them. He invented automatons, weapons of war, and many other inventions as well. In the fifth movement you will hear the choir sing the different ideal proportions of the human body and see an overlay of his incredibly detailed (and accurate!) sketches of the human form on top of a live model: dancer Stephen Schroeder.Īnd who could forget da Vinci’s famous flying machines? In truth he invented several gliders in his lifetime, and had a preliminary understanding of aerodynamics, which he called “the science of the winds,” centuries ahead of George Cayley (credited with the discovery of aerodynamics in 1809). Da Vinci was one of several artists who examined this theory by sketching a “Vitruvian man.” The infamous image demonstrates the blend of mathematics and art as well as da Vinci’s deep understanding of proportion. Vitruvius, the architect, described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion among the classical orders of architecture. Leonardo da Vinci did not invent the Vitruvian man, but it is without doubt the most recognizable image from all his notebook pages. I wove musical phrases from the “Gloria” and “Kyrie” of Gaffurio’s Missa di Carneval into the fabric of the string parts. Gaffurio and da Vinci both lived in Milan, and according to The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, were actually friends. First, da Vinci’s fascination with water and his understanding that water is the carrier and matrix of life, and second, the music of Italian music theorist and composer Franchino Gaffurio. The third movement, “Ripples,” combines two ideas that I was very excited about exploring in this work. But he also drew pictures of grotesque faces, cats, and a few dragons! This showed to me an often-overlooked but extremely beneficial component of the creative process: playfulness. His notebooks are full of musings just like these, along with keen observations, geometrical studies, and techniques for painting and drawing. And in the penultimate movement, he warns the reader to be aware of personal bias, suggesting that the truth may be revealed if one is able to see things from a different point of view. In the fourth movement, his words express the necessity of basing one’s judgments on facts rather than speculation. In the second movement, da Vinci stresses the importance of daily practice based on the pillars of knowledge. Knowledge became one of the greatest themes I focused on when crafting the libretto, and is the subject matter for three of the movements, which are sung a cappella. And did you know he wrote right to left, backwards, as if in a mirror? Mistakes and practice were a big part of his creative process, as they should be. He very quickly crosses out a word, pauses, then continues on with his idea. You can see this this attribute of his personality beautifully in the opening of the symphony, when his handwriting is scrolling across the screen. he remained open to the possibility of new discoveries and allowed himself the freedom to change his mind. More than anything he just wanted to understand the world around him, and he didn’t let his pride or ego stand in the way of posing the tough questions or trying to answer them. He was a man known as much for his failures as his successes, and this did not dampen his creativity or his drive. One of the biggest lessons I gleaned from studying his work was the importance of being willing to fail. How was I to condense this huge body of work into one 35 minute symphony? (Over 5,000 pages of manuscript have been found.) There was no way I could include the entirety of this work, so my goal became serving the spirit of his work and his curious mind. When I first began researching da Vinci and his notebooks, I was overwhelmed. ![]() ![]() His genius has been articulated by scholars, historians, artists, engineers, and scientists for centuries, and the legacy of his work will continue to endure the test of time because of his remarkable synthesis of art, science and design. Rivers of ink have been dedicated to the study of the life and work of Leonardo da Vinci. | Program Notes by composer Jocelyn Hagen About Hagen’s “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci”
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