Inspirations Behind Judith Weir’s Heroic Strokes of the Bow Many of Paul Klee’s paintings have made it into music, especially his Twittering Machine. Composers have written their own twittering machine music for symphony orchestra, flute and computer, String quartet, guitar

Helen Grime’s Night Songs Inspired by Joseph Cornell The American artist and filmmaker Joseph Cornell (1903–1972) was best known for his assemblages. Using found objects, he created shadow boxes, deep boxes with glass fronts, in which he made arrangements of

Inspirations Behind Stuart Greenbaum’s Mondrian Interiors The Dutch painter Piet Mondrian (1872–1944) was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. As a pioneer in abstract art, he made the important move from figurative painting through an increasingly

Inspirations Behind George Antheil’s McKonkey’s Ferry The American Revolution (1765–1783) started as an ideological and political movement until it became a full-blown war against the British. The war started on 19 April 1775 in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, with

Inspirations Behind Aaron Jay Kernis’s Invisible Mosaic Series A mosaic uses small pieces of glass, coloured stone, or ceramic to create a larger pattern or image. First found in Mesopotamia in 3000BC, they spread through the world and can be

Inspirations Behind Simon Holt’s Tauromaquia The Spanish artist Francisco Goya created a series of 33 prints on the theme of bullfighting, La Tauromaquia, and published them in 1816. He was in the middle of working on his series The Disasters

Inspirations Behind John Luther Adams’ The Immeasurable Space of Tones Latvian-American artist Mark Rothko (1903–1970) is best known for his colour field paintings. Colour field was a purely abstract form of expressionism where, unlike abstract expressionism, all references (emotional, mythic,

Inspirations Behind Morton Gould’s Burchfield Gallery The American artist, Charles E. Burchfield (1893–1967), was a watercolour painter with a unique vision, described as both romantic and fantastic. After graduating from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1916, he found his