Amazing Grace close up first draft of notation.  This verse ends  slowly so that there is not much to punched at  the end of this music.  So, the action has been expanded, for example in this section, to create some pop and interest.

Notation is just notes and stuff.  To make this art work the notation had to evolved over the years.  This evolution certainly is far from done, and is a driving force of the artist.  For example, look at these notes and compare them to any other sheet music and you will see that the art has lifted the notes up, from their almost laying down position in 2005, to a sharp angle to create movement of today.

The music that is painted is painted out of passion for the music.  To express those feelings attached to the music the notation had to be constantly tweaked to where this art now defines its own musical expression. Since there is no sound though, emulating from these canvas, the Va-Va-BOOM is got to come from the flow of the music, otherwise these paintings would be boring. It is this flow where this art stands out.

The Point: and this is the big Point, unlike previous expression of music this art is not done as an abstraction. It could be. It could easily then be wall decoration at the local Perkins restaurant.  But it is not for what you see is only Amazing grace,  and not a fabulous expression of  Cherry Cherry by Neil Diamond.

What makes this art work is its connection to a one-of-a-kind piece of music.   What makes this art work is that this fluid connection is expressed in the flow of the music.  Since this art cannot be played, it isn’t music.  Since this art cannot be sung it isn’t music.  Yet, it is all about the expression of the music.

Look at it this way: most portraits are pictures of someone, most landscapes are pictures of somewhere.  Both the portrait and the landscape rarely duplicate the subject, you have photography for that. Look at a cubist portrait by Picasso or a Arles landscape by Van Gogh, and it is not the person or the place that you love, it is how they created more out of what was present.  This art expresses music as a portrait, a landscape, a still life, an abstraction making more out of simple notation.

Scott Von Holzen