Pictures at an Exhibition: Promenade II by Modest Mussorgsky
Series
3. Promenade II
60" x 65" - 152 x 165 cm
Acrylic & Oil on Canvas
Listen
Promenade II Explained
With Permission: 2024 Canadian National Brass Project, Recorded at St. Anne's Church, Toronto, ON Aug 29 - Sept 2, 2016 canadiannationalbrassproject.com
Narration by: Sam Rosenthal & Michelle Piller
Narration by: Sam Rosenthal & Michelle Piller
The pulse tightens and brightens. Steps feel quicker, yet the theme holds. Not repetition, but variation, the same travelling centre carried forward from Promenade I, now resurfacing like a lily at the waterline. An opening is held in quiet ceremony as petals meet light and the surface offers buoyant support.
Shared material returning changed.
Movement steadies, drawing attention to the moment a petal lifts, one disclosure at a time, a path traced across water. Reflections double the image and slow the gaze. Borders register as ripples rather than edges. The feeling is andante con moto tempered by float, measured yet supple, with forward motion brightened by glints that skim the surface.
The meter gathers in 5/4 and 6/4, like two linked breaths, so openings arrive in counted inhalations. Cross-currents set a gentle after-beat, and light appears on the off-pulse as the bloom responds and the water answers.
The centre rides close, a small mandala afloat between pictures, not a destination but a preparation, a poised interval where what rises from depth meets what is about to be seen.
Shared material returning changed.
Movement steadies, drawing attention to the moment a petal lifts, one disclosure at a time, a path traced across water. Reflections double the image and slow the gaze. Borders register as ripples rather than edges. The feeling is andante con moto tempered by float, measured yet supple, with forward motion brightened by glints that skim the surface.
The meter gathers in 5/4 and 6/4, like two linked breaths, so openings arrive in counted inhalations. Cross-currents set a gentle after-beat, and light appears on the off-pulse as the bloom responds and the water answers.
The centre rides close, a small mandala afloat between pictures, not a destination but a preparation, a poised interval where what rises from depth meets what is about to be seen.
I imagine this interval as the opening of a water lily, its centre rising through a thin film of time while the surface bears the weight. The motion is quickened yet unhurried, like paired breaths, with reflection holding what has just passed as the next image gathers. In this floating space, memory and anticipation overlap, and the path forward is already quietly underway.– Paula Arciniega
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