Claude Debussy's "Voiles" in Crayon

Claude Debussy's "Voiles" 

Musical Mosaic

By Madison Ellis

         

        My “Voiles” music mosaic consists of melted crayons on canvas, photographed at different points in its creation. Originally, I knew what I wanted my piece to look like. I was going for something like k. Madison Moore’s “Crystal Cave” abstractionism. I had colors set out, a visual in mind, a planned narrative to follow. My structured, pre-determined music mosaic melted away, however, as I turned on “Voiles” and picked up my blow dryer. For several moments, I shared my world with the song. I opened my eyes, moved my hands, and let it speak through my canvas. In the words of Annie Dillard, “…my own shutter [opened], and the moment’s light {printed] on my own silver gut,” (Dillard). Organically born, my work reflects the raw, wordless nature of Debussy’s piece by capturing the music in its own colorful dialogue.
        The song starts off with trickling scales and deep, rhythmic beats that are reflected by hot drops of grey and blue wax. As the song progresses, becomes more and more complex, the crayon drips more intensely—it blurs into itself in great circles, mimicking the continuous throb of the bass line. In the corner, a wave of green blooms. Bright splotches mimic Debussy’s explosions of high dissonances. The music swells in intensity as the colors become brighter, more intense, more alluring. In the crest of musical and visual climax, blooming runs are reflected in an overtaking arch of yellow that masks the cool darkness of the song’s beginnings.
        The song winds back into its chilly mystery. Once again, the throbbing beat returns, the major cords fade out. Black drips across the visual. The wax, melting darkly into itself, rests in the same deep mystery as Debussy’s “Voiles”.
        The organic movement of the wax follows Debussy’s piece, and the interspersed cool and warm colors reflect the overall feeling of the song. Working through the song left me with a single piece of canvas covered in its brownish slur of wax remnants. Both the song and the art piece grey after the process of manifestation. The song’s echoes fades. The wax’s color blurs. The beauty of the work disappears just as surely as the song ends.
        Debussy’s “Voiles” had its own structure, its own narrative, and its own color palate in mind. Before I even listened to it, “Voiles” knew exactly what it wanted to be. Debussy planned it that way. We interpret it that way. The music’s flow created its own art, and all I did was sit in the moment long enough to capture it.