Four Landscapes
Four Landscapes: Inspired by the Paintings of Peder Mørk Mønsted
Peder Mørk Mønsted was a Danish realist painter (b. Dec. 10, 1859; d. June 20, 1941) who was most well-known for his landscape paintings.
On a fortunate day late September 2023, I stumbled across a compilation of Mønsted's works and felt immediately inspired by them. That very night, I composed a roughly three-minute sketch, which later became the last piece in this work, A Winter's Day in Charlottenlund.
I selected three other works from Mønsted’s catalogue, each representing one of the seasons (some literally in name of the artwork, others simply by the content of the artwork), and I wrote a short movement inspired by each of them. The paintings that I chose, which are also the names of each movement, are:
Flodlandskap (1914),
Sommer landskab med floden flodslette (1911),
Flodlandskap (1903),
Vinterdag Charlottenlund Skov (1918).
Together, these four movements come together to create Four Landscapes, an orchestral suite that I wrote specifically for the Whitworth Orchestra and the Concerto Competition that they hold annually. With each movement, I wrote what I felt compelled to write while studying the images that guided me. Each movement is my own musical interpretation of the accompanying painting by artist Peder Mørk Mønsted, and I hope this piece serves as a tribute to the life and work of a wonderful artist.
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