Museum Matches Music to Masterpieces

In the serene intimacy of a wood-paneled gallery at the Arthur M. Sackler Museum, two slender violin bows dipped up and down against the backdrop of a 15th century Italian painting last Friday afternoon. The violinists, dressed elegantly in black with splashes of red and white, focused intently on the delicacy of their work. A small audience of museum-goers stood and perched on folding stools nearby, while others calmly perused the surrounding artwork. Even gallery security guards stretched their beats slightly to watch the performance. In adjoining rooms, the airborne cadences of concertos reached statues, portraits, vases, and painted panels.

The violinists were Shiyu Wei ’10 and Shuang Wu ’11, and their concert was a part of the ongoing Student Music Performance Series, organized by the Harvard Arts Museums Education Department. They performed Bach, Vivaldi, Bartók, and Telemann in galleries devoted to the “Western Tradition, Antiquity to 1900.” On five more Friday afternoons this spring, Harvard student musicians will hold hour-long performances with various pieces suited to different galleries of the Sackler. The series aims not only to inform the viewing of visual art from a musical angle but also to redefine the museum experience for students.

“There’s a way in which it’s about learning, and there’s another way in which it’s about relaxing,” Director of Education for HAM Ray Williams says. While the works performed are chosen specifically to provide musical context for the art in specific galleries, the careful matching of “culture and period” in both genres is not the only goal of the project. As part of a larger initiative in the department to enhance “connections to the student community,” Williams and his colleagues aim to assure students who would normally just pass by the Sackler that the galleries can be a tranquil haven away from the stress of classes.

Along the same lines, the department is “preparing some study break programming during reading week [including] sketching, yoga...art talks and mak[ing] cookies to remind people that the museum can be a place to come for relaxation and nourishment,” Williams says.

Indeed, Friday’s violinists showcased the relaxing quality of their talent, as well as their impressive skill. Both began to play in early childhood and are still active in the Harvard music community. Wei has played with the Mozart Society Orchestra and still sings in the Radcliffe Choral Society, while Wu has played for various Harvard orchestras and Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club musicals like “Nine.” The skill of the musicians combined with the gallery’s acoustics, so clear Wu likened them to those of a cathedral, produced a pure and energetic sound that resonated throughout the fourth-floor galleries.

The audience members were not the only ones to appreciate the performance. When asked about the unique experience, Wu noted that it was “more relaxed than a formal performance in front of a lot of people.” Wei felt indebted to Janet M. Sartor, Public Programs Coordinator of Harvard Art Museums, who urged Wu to try out at the open audition.

On top of its therapeutic entertainment value, though, the performances raise questions about whether or not a musical experience can contribute to a visual one. The art among which Wei and Wu played—works by artists as stylistically and chronologically diverse as Edgar Dégas, James McNeill Whistler, Fra Angelico, Daniel Chester French and contemporary artist Max Grotjahn—is united in the fourth floor galleries to draw “attention not only to technical and stylistic innovations, but especially to continuities and revivals of themes and styles,” according to the galleries’ posted introduction.

In a collection emphasizing “both different approaches and artistic interconnections” between art of different time periods, it seems only natural to explore “interconnections” between different media as well. The same cultural forces and political events would influence the development of Western music and Western art through the ages—but they remain fundamentally distinct media. Can unconscious or background perception of one inform a conscious experience of the other? Can a lively Vivaldi duet contribute anything to French’s “Abraham Lincoln, 1916?” Were the violinists’ bows dipping into mythological hills of painted panels unwelcome intrusions or further brushstrokes? With upcoming performances at 3:30 p.m. every Friday—except during Spring Break—through April, the Student Music Performance Series has the potential to blur artistic boundaries while reaching out to students looking for revitalization.