Fun Trivia : Art in Songs

Structure Sub-topic of: Something in Common Quizzes Interesting Questions, Facts and Information There are a total of 10 general entries. Special Topics When Rock and Art Blend Painters and Paintings in Song

Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information

Art in Songs

The lyrics of which Bauhaus song consist of quotations and cut-ups from the dystopian classic "Brave New World" (1932) by Aldous Huxley?

Songs in the Footsteps of Artworks


Silent Hedges. Bauhaus took their name from the German architecture school and art movement. Their interpretation of "art for art's sake" led them to include a lot of references to artists and artworks in their songs. The book title "Brave New World" is taken from Miranda's speech in act 5 of Shakespeare's "The Tempest". It so happened that I coincidentally purchased my copy of the Bauhaus LP "The Sky's Gone Out" (1982) and my English copy of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World". Reading the book and listening to the album's second track, I noticed the beautiful collage woven therein. Lyrics: http://www.waste.org/bauhaus/l/silenthedges.html Online book with a search feature: http://www.classicreader.com/booktoc.php/sid.1/bookid.1279/ Time for a nice closure to this quiz - The Doors took their name from Aldous Huxley's book "The Doors of Perception". In turn, Huxley borrowed this name from a quote by a poet: "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is: infinite". And this infinite loop brings us right back to the first question of this quiz - the poet to whom the quote belongs is William Blake. Hope you enjoyed to test your knowledge and/or to learn from this humble effort of mine, and hope to see you playing my other quizzes.



"The Lie (Bernini's St. Theresa)" is a dramatic song inspired by Bernini's marble statue "The Ecstasy of St. Teresa" placed at the Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. Who composed and sang it in his album "The Silent Corner and The Empty Stage" (1973)?

Songs in the Footsteps of Artworks


Peter Hammill. A powerful song. The last thing we did when visiting Rome for the first time was rush to the Santa Maria della Vittoria with a walkman and marvel at the statue while listening to the song. Nowadays, you can do the same from the comfort of your chair: Song audio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpbSdUwzTGU Song lyrics: http://www.sofasound.com/phcds/sclyrics.htm#3 Image of the statue: http://www.library.ubc.ca/finearts/BaroqueImages/st_therese2.jpg Well, almost the same.



The BBC series "The Prisoner" (1967/8) starring Patrick McGoohan was described by some as the TV equivalent of George Orwell's "1984". Issues raised by the series, such as religion, thought-control and the rebellion against them, landed on the fertile ground of an extremely opinionated folk-rock artist and resulted in the epic "McGoohan's Blues" released in his album "Folkjokeopus" (1969). Who is that artist?

Songs in the Footsteps of Artworks


Roy Harper. Roy Harper on "McGoohan's Blues": "The big problem that you've got with writing things like that is that you don't want them to be true, but increasingly they are... Well maybe the next time I can write something that fantasises instead and then I won't have to look back and say, You were right Roy... It's terrible just to think about a little man like me, a little boy as I was, writing a song like that - and it still being a valid thing to say now. And I can't actually see a time when it won't be, it's sort of... it's fairly timeless. I didn't think it was going to be. I didn't think about things like that then, it was almost stream-of-consciousness and you sort of have withdrawal symptoms from it... you don't want it to be there, and at the same time it's like a hollow victory. It's a very hollow victory." (ref: http://www.terrascope.org/harper.html). More on "The prisoner": http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/P/htmlP/prisonerthe/prisonerthe.htm Roy Harper himself could have been a subject to a question in this quiz, as Led Zeppelin's song "Hats Off To (Roy) Harper" is dedicated to him.



One of Rembrandt's most famous paintings is "De Nachtwacht" ("The Night Watch", 1642). Which progressive rock band has a song by the same name, virtually portraying the painting in its lyrics?

Songs in the Footsteps of Artworks


King Crimson. King Crimson's lyricist Richard Palmer-James excelled in his portrayal of "The Night Watch". I can only recommend you to listen to the song while looking at the painting. Lyrics: http://lyrics.rockmagic.net/lyrics/king_crimson/starless_and_bible_black_1974.html#04 Audio: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiIIo9nKBSA Painting and description from the website of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum: http://www.rijksmuseum.nl/aria/aria_assets/SK-C-5?lang=en (click to enlarge) The song is from "Starless and Bible Black" (1974). The album name is a quotation from Dylan Thomas' play "Under Milk Wood" (1953).