Morning Meditation: Friday, February 21, 2025

ART APPRECIATION

In Breezing Up (A Fair Wind), we see a man and three boys returning to shore with their catch of fish. The painting seems to have a positive message. Even though the waters are choppy, the people look relaxed. Through the clouds we can see sunlight on the backs of the sailors. The boy holding the tiller is looking toward the horizon. This has been interpreted to be a statement of optimism about his future and the future of  a young United States.
¹

Winslow Homer (1836-1910) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Though he was an average student, he always had an exceptional talent in art. His mother was a gifted watercolorist and was his first art teacher until he was an adult. Homer never had any formal art instruction because he claimed he wanted his style to be original, not a copy of other artists. His main job was as an illustrator for Harper’s Magazine where he drew mostly Boston life and other New England scenes. After opening a studio in New York City, he took a course in the basics of oil painting, but he taught himself in only one year’s time. Harper’s sent him to the front lines during the Civil War, where he painted the loneliness of the soldiers and the horrors of the war. Home Sweet Home and Prisoners from the Front were examples of this time on the front. When Homer returned and moved to New York, the focus of the paintings were landscapes and children. These were very popular. Snap the Whip and The Morning Bell were done during this period. Later in life, he moved to Maine, where his most popular marine paintings were done. In Eight Bells and Sunlight on the Coast, his focus changed to that of peace and serenity. Though HOmer never taught other artists, he was influential to many other American painters such as N.C. Wyeth and Howard Pyle.
²

MUSIC APPRECIATION

Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64: I. “Allegro molto appassionato”

Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64, concerto for violin and orchestra by Felix Mendelssohn, one of the most lyrical and flowing works of its type and one of the most frequently performed of all violin concerti. It premiered in Leipzig on March 13, 1845.

Mendelssohn, then conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, composed his concerto with violinist Ferdinand David, his concertmaster, in mind. The men had been good friends since they were teenagers. Although Mendelssohn had first mentioned writing a violin concerto in 1838, it was not completed until 1844. On the day of the premiere, David was the soloist, but Mendelssohn, who was ill, could not conduct his new work, so the orchestra was led instead by Mendelssohn’s assistant, Danish conductor and composer Niels Gade.

Mendelssohn used the standard classical structures for the piece, but he made adaptations to better suit both his own tastes and the changing times. These changes include an almost instant introduction of the solo instrument and, until then unusual, a written-out solo cadenza; these were usually improvised by the soloist.
³

Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847) was a German composer, pianist, musical conductor, and teacher, one of the most-celebrated figures of the early Romantic period. In his music, Mendelssohn largely observed Classical models and practices while initiating key aspects of Romanticism—the artistic movement that exalted feeling and the imagination above rigid forms and traditions. Among his most famous works are Overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1826), Italian Symphony (1833), a violin concerto (1844), two piano concerti (1831, 1837), the oratorio Elijah (1846), and several pieces of chamber music. He was a grandson of the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn.⁴