Word Painting
A kind of text-painting that directly mimics the meaning of a word
Related
Word painting is a more specific kind of text-painting: music that directly mimics the meaning of a single word — laughter runs upward, weeping falls in semitones, flight takes a high register and rapid figures. It is most typical of the Renaissance madrigal and Baroque vocal music.
Its relation to text-painting is specific to general: word painting stresses word-by-word mimicry, while text-painting can shape the emotion of a whole phrase more freely. The usual mistake is to dismiss word painting as naive — used well, it turns meaning into bodily sensation in an instant; overused, it becomes a puzzle.
Read deeper → text painting
Sources
- 字画在牧歌与巴洛克声乐中的具体手法，参 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "Word painting"；本文为原创表述
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