Music of the Winds and Seas- Part 1: “Hubris”
Measurements: 24″x36″
Medium description: single unbroken sheet of cut acid-free white paper mounted on single unbroken sheet of cut acid-free black paper.
Music of the Winds and Seas is planned four-panel piece, currently in progress. Each panel measures 24″x36″, and features the music of a wind band composer. The series as a whole is an observation of humankind’s relationship with the sea.
“Hubris” is the first panel, and takes its name from the first movement of Wine Dark Sea, a symphony for band by John Mackey. Mackey was in turn inspired by the tale of the Odyssey. His music portrays Odysseus’s ship being struck down by Zeus for his prideful offenses against the gods.
I took Mackey’s melodies and placed them on masts rooted to a cruise ship– the Costa Concordia, which sank in 2012 off the coast of Italy due to the reckless stunts of her captain, a modern-day Odysseus. Mackey’s bassline runs in the waters beneath the ship, connecting to the bassline of Harrison’s Dream in the next panel.
On the smallest mast, nine bars are spaced out in morse code for “SOS,” a rhythmic distress call which Mackey has the drums play in the disastrous climax of Hubris.
The style of the wave was inspired by Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa. However, instead of the harmonious way Hokusai’s little boats bow in submission, I wanted to create the discordance of a captain’s ill-advised, ill-fated clash with nature.
For the 32 people who perished aboard the Costa Concordia, their souls are represented as 32 stars in the sky, which are arranged in the constellations Argo Navis (the Ship Argo) and Delphinus (the Dolphin).
Thank you to John Mackey for kindly giving me his blessing to use his music!
