Surrealism and Music? The Musical World Around René Magritte

Surrealism and Music?: The Musical World Around René Magritte, 1930-1975 By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Surrealism and Music? The Musical World Around René Magritte, 1930-1975 performed on Nov 13, 1992 at Carnegie Hall.  This concert is designed to parallel the Metropolitan Museum’s exhibition of the work of René Magritte. Two principles of organization…

Surreal Sounds Illicit Images By Ellen Handler Spitz, Cornell University, Psychiatry Written for the concert Surrealism and Music? The Musical World Around René Magritte, 1930-1975 performed on Nov 13, 1992 at Carnegie Hall.  Imagine silence and a cold indigo sky with a pregnant Magritte cloud that lowers over a landscape of uncanny imagery. Unpredictably, the…

André Souris’ Collage By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Surrealism and Music? The Musical World Around René Magritte, 1930-1975 performed on Nov 13, 1992 at Carnegie Hall.  André  Souris (1890-1970) was one of this century’s most eminent Belgian musical figures. For most of his creative life he was attached to the surrealist movement. Souris was…

Charles Koechlin’s Les Bandar-Log By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Surrealism and Music? The Musical World Around René Magritte, 1930-1975 performed on Nov 13, 1992 at Carnegie Hall.  Charles Koechlin (1867-1950) was the grand old man of the French avant-garde and the unsung hero of the twentieth century French music. Koechlin’s longevity, extraordinary productivity,…

Cage’s Concerto for Prepared Piano and Orchestra By Mark Swed Written for the concert Surrealism and Music? The Musical World Around René Magritte, 1930-1975 performed on Nov 13, 1992 at Carnegie Hall.  The piece John Cage always professed to be the favorite of all his work was his most famous and controversial score, 4’33”. Written…

Edgard Varèse’s Arcana By Jonathan W. Bernard, Associate Professor, University of Washington Written for the concert Surrealism and Music? The Musical World Around René Magritte, 1930-1975 performed on Nov 13, 1992 at Carnegie Hall.  In October 1925 Varèse, visiting France for a few months, wrote to his wife back in New York: The two Fanfares…

Poulenc’s Suite from Les Biches By Leon Botstein Written for the concert Surrealism and Music? The Musical World Around René Magritte, 1930-1975 performed on Nov 13, 1992 at Carnegie Hall.  Despite the fact that Andre Breton, the most prominent surrealist writer, despised Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), the great French writer and cultural personality, as a “notorious…

Magritte, About the Exhibition at the Museum By Elyse Topalian, Metropolitan Museum of Art Written for the concert Surrealism and Music? The Musical World Around René Magritte, 1930-1975 performed on Nov 13, 1992 at Carnegie Hall.  The surrealist artist René Magritte (1898-1967) once said that he painted to evoke the mysteries of the world. His work,…