I like to keep the cover music for this artwork around one minute or less. That does not always happen, but this is the goal. I have my reasoning. Go to any museum and stopwatch the viewers as they pause at your favorite Van Gogh, Turner, Matisse, Picasso, or Rembrandt, painting. You will notice their stare time is around 30 seconds. Looking at the timing for this art my guess is less than 30 seconds for the viewer would soon discover the music push button. That then adds a one minute, more or less, of extra viewing time. Finally, to bring the total view to near two minutes, I would probably get extra starring seconds once the music stops and before the confused viewer finally moves on to the Picasso. That added average viewing time would certainly help this art stand out in a person’s memory, and make the great ones envious.

Every cover song starts with the piano as my foundation for my notation. If the music has voice, then I include a better representative, either a string or woodwind instrument for their Legato (dictionary meaning is a smooth flowing manner, without breaks between notes.) For this rough cut version of the cover music I am using the software Notion for the Alto Flute, Viola, and Cello for voice parts, supported by the piano, banjo and drums.

In the past, before sound, I would use a phrase from the music in order to create the artwork. When I first added music, its purpose was to help the viewer follow the musical notation the artwork was displaying, which then enhanced their experience. That worked for a while. Eventually, as my musical skills increased, the cover music grew not only longer but included more instruments. This resulted in the increasing difficulty in following the artwork along with the music. I made this even worse because the artworks were also getting bigger to accommodate the increased length of the cover music. My temporary solution was to make my notation smaller. When I discovered even I was having trouble following the music along with the artwork, I knew that the causal viewer would simply stop trying. The solution became to have the artwork cover only parts of the cover music for the artwork. At that moment, the artwork no longer controlled the music. No longer am I creating artworks. They are now presentations with the visual and the sound being equal partners. 

Creating a presentation with this music makes added sense considering that this is not a major piece of music, and after counting the lead vocal notes for the cover music. They added up to over one-hundred. If I would then go with my average notation size, which is 50 millimeters, the artwork would have a length of over sixteen feet. That would be the size of a major Vivaldi artwork, and a silly waste of time for this small, but adorable song by the band Train.

This is my 81st day back Home and the first posting of the start of a new project. I am still working in a temporary studio. Yesterday, they installed the commercial carpet squares in the soon to be new permanent Studio.

Scott Von Holzen