one bright afternoon in 1871, too feeble to sit for her portrait, anna whistler went down the thames with her son. that evening, at the studio window, she told him it was “yet light enough” to make a moonlight picture of the thames. this follows that hour, from the river by day to the moon at the window and the night pictures he came to call nocturnes, and ends on the word a child gave her portrait: peace.
a playlist for short 031, whistler’s mother
yet light enough
the hour
10 tracks, in the order they play
each block is a track, drawn as long as it plays44:06
the river by day
0:00 – 12:330:00
water music: air
01 · handel, john eliot gardiner
on 17 july 1717 the first water music was played from a barge going up the thames to chelsea, where the king went ashore for supper.
3:503:50
sweet thames flow softly
02 · rufus & martha wainwright
ewan maccoll wrote it in 1966 for a romeo and juliet set in london: a courtship sailed up the thames, from woolwich to kew.
5:098:59
watching the river flow
03 · bob dylan
1971: daylight through the window, a walk beneath the moon, the chimney tops, and a man who’ll “sit here so contentedly and watch the river flow.”
3:34sunset, and the moon at the window
12:33 – 18:3112:33
waterloo sunset
04 · the kinks
ray davies first watched the thames at sunset from a hospital window at st thomas’, ill as a boy; the song came to him later, in a dream.
3:1515:48
moon river
05 · audrey hepburn
holly golightly sings it to her guitar on the fire escape outside her window. the studio nearly cut the scene.
2:43the word, and the night pictures
18:31 – 37:2218:31
nocturne in e-flat, op. 55 no. 2
06 · chopin, arthur rubinstein
whistler called his night pictures “moonlights” until frederick leyland, an amateur pianist who loved chopin, gave him the word “nocturne.”
5:5024:21
chelsea bridge
07 · duke ellington
billy strayhorn wrote it “with a painting by james mcneill whistler in mind”: a thames bridge at night. he named the wrong bridge.
2:5427:15
nocturnes: nuages
08 · debussy, michael tilson thomas
debussy’s nocturnes share whistler’s title; he described the first idea as what “a study in grey” is in painting.
8:4235:57
pigs on the wing 1
09 · pink floyd
the power station on the cover of animals stands by chelsea bridge, on the far bank of the reach whistler painted at night.
1:25peace
37:22 – 44:0637:22
peace piece
10 · bill evans
when one of leyland’s little daughters saw the portrait, she said he ought to “write peace on your mother’s picture for that is what it is.”
6:44