Sound Thoughts on Art

National Gallery of Art

The arts can engage all our senses, but it’s in the crossover between them that things really get interesting. When we listen to music, what do we see in our mind’s eye? When we look at a work of art, what do we hear? Sound Thoughts on Art, a new podcast from the National Gallery of Art, explores the intersection of sight and sound. Hosted by musician and journalist Celeste Headlee, each episode focuses on a work of art in the National Gallery’s collection. Learn about the work and its context and hear a musician respond to that work through sound, creating a dialogue between visual art and music. Sound Thoughts on Art tells the stories of how we experience art and how it connects us.

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Top 10 Sound Thoughts on Art Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Sound Thoughts on Art episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Sound Thoughts on Art for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Sound Thoughts on Art episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Season 1: Episode 1: Lara Downes and "Tomorrow I May Be Far Away"

Sound Thoughts on Art

10/27/21 • 25 min

Art meets us where we are. For classical pianist and activist Lara Downes, Romare Bearden’s collage parallels her own life and family story: a puzzle full of questions and unfinished business. On her journey inside Bearden’s work, Downes travels backward to explore Black memory. In response to the collage, she brings together different musical sources, overlaying sounds that sit together comfortably at times and create tension at others, giving them the freedom to coexist.

Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at www.nga.gov/music-programs/podc...ay-be-far-away.html.

Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app https://feeds.megaphone.fm/NGAT6207729686.

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Season 2, Episode 3: Sa-Roc and Margaret Burroughs’s Sleeping Boy

Sound Thoughts on Art

03/22/22 • 36 min

Rapper Sa-Roc’s music speaks to different aspects of Black experience, including the vulnerability of many Black kids—similar to the boy in Margaret Burroughs’s linocut, who hides himself. Her song “Forever” invites listeners not to hide, but to shine and share their “inner light” with the world.

Find full transcript and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/sa-roc-margaret-burroughs-sleeping-boy.html

Image credit: Margaret Burroughs, Sleeping Boy (also known as Mexican Boy) (detail), 1953, linocut, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Florian Carr Fund and Gift of the Print Research Foundation, 2008.115.28

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The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.

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Season 1: Episode 2: Daniel Bernard Roumain and "American Gothic"

Sound Thoughts on Art

10/27/21 • 23 min

Composer Daniel Bernard Roumain sees pain, legacy, and enduring hope in this famous photograph of Ella Watson, one of many by Gordon Parks. Performance poet Lady Caress describes it as “the physical form of stolen expectations.” Together, they respond to the iconic photograph with a combination of music and poetry. In the ebb and flow of his composition, DBR hopes to capture the rhythm of Watson’s life—an elegy for someone he longs to have known.

Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at www.nga.gov/music-programs/podc...merican-gothic.html.

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.

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Season 1: "Sound Thoughts on Art" trailer

Sound Thoughts on Art

10/27/21 • 0 min

Hosted by musician and journalist Celeste Headlee, each episode focuses on a work of art in the National Gallery’s collection. Learn about the work and its context and hear a musician respond to that work through sound, creating a dialogue between visual art and music. Sound Thoughts on Art tells the stories of how we experience art and how it connects us.

Find more information about this episode at www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts.html

Subscribe directly to Sound Thoughts on Art from the National Gallery of Art on Apple Podcasts (podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nati...rt/id1552618916), Google Podcasts (podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly...AAAAAHQAAAAAQBA), Spotify (open.spotify.com/show/7cyalz9GPgP...8nTY6xdrUUGHn46A), Stitcher (www.stitcher.com/show/sound-thoughts-on-art), or your favorite podcast app.

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.

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Season 2: Episode 5: Peter Sheppard Skærved and Hieronymus Bosch’s “Death and the Miser”

Sound Thoughts on Art

04/19/22 • 47 min

Violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved and National Gallery director Kaywin Feldman discuss Hieronymus Bosch’s “Death and the Miser” and its symbolism of contrast: light and dark, life and death. Skærved plays a 17th-century violin sonatina that echoes similar contrasts of sensuality and fatality, beauty and mortality.

Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/peter-sheppard-skaerved-hieronymus-bosch-death-miser.html

Image credit: Hieronymus Bosch, Death and the Miser (detail), c. 1485/1490, oil on panel, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.33

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.

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Season 2: Episode 1: Dom Flemons and Marc Chagall’s “Orphée”

Sound Thoughts on Art

02/22/22 • 35 min

Orphée depicts many tragedies, but songwriter Dom Flemons finds the joy in it: it resolves in the beautiful scene of two lovers embracing. Flemons pairs it with the tranquil “Blue Butterfly.” The instrumental song helps the emotional weight sink in.

Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/dom-flemons-marc-chagall-orphee.html.

Image credit: Marc Chagall, Orphée, 1969, stone and glass mosaic, National Gallery of Art, Washington, The John U. and Evelyn S. Nef Collection, 2011.60.104.1–10

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.

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Season 2: Episode 2: Jenny Scheinman and El Greco’s “Laocoön”

Sound Thoughts on Art

03/08/22 • 33 min

In “Sand Dipper,” jazz violinist Jenny Scheinman creates an abstract and overwhelming world. This music, Scheinman says, sounds how El Greco’s painting looks. And it feels like the question on Laocoön’s face as he looks up for the last time.

Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/jenny-scheinman-el-greco-laocoon.html.

Image credit: El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos), Laocoön, c. 1610/1614, oil on canvas, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1946.18.1

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.

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Bonus Episode: Episode 11: Celeste Headlee and James Van Der Zee’s “Couple, Harlem”

Sound Thoughts on Art

11/23/21 • 27 min

In this photograph, journalist and musician Celeste Headlee hears “Lenox Avenue,” a suite her grandfather William Grant Still named after Harlem’s main street. This portrait captures the pride of Black Americans achieving success during the Harlem Renaissance despite systemic injustice. Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts.html.

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.

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Season 1: Episode 3: Bora Yoon and "Ommah"

Sound Thoughts on Art

10/27/21 • 25 min

Nam June Paik used Ommah, Korean for “mother,” as the title of his final video sculpture. For composer and multi-instrumentalist Bora Yoon, this evokes the mother tongue and the motherland. Through the concept of cultural blood memory, Yoon explores whether we carry the sounds and memories of our people within us. She responds to Paik’s work by bringing together traditional Korean instruments and her own eclectic electronic music.

Find full transcripts and more information about this episode at www.nga.gov/music-programs/podc...yoon-and-ommah.html.

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.

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Season 2: Episode 6: Delfeayo Marsalis and Hawkins Bolden’s “Untitled”

Sound Thoughts on Art

05/03/22 • 30 min

This work reminds jazz trombonist Delfeayo Marsalis of the proud, hard-working generations that raised him. A history of struggle may suggest the minor key, but Marsalis ultimately chose upbeat music to celebrate those who fought and made it work.

Find full transcript and more information about this episode at https://www.nga.gov/music-programs/podcasts/delfeayo-marsalis-hawkins-bolden-untitled.html

Image credit: Hawkins Bolden, Untitled, 1980/1987, shovel head, garden hose, and wire, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Patrons’ Permanent Fund and Gift of the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, 2020.28.10

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ABOUT THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The National Gallery of Art serves the nation by welcoming all people to explore and experience art, creativity, and our shared humanity.

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