Work in progress…
Dance of the Cuckold is a lively and satirical musical interpretation of Jan Steen’s painting The Cuckold Bridegroom, which humorously exposes the folly and irony of human nature. Displayed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the artwork depicts an older groom leading his heavily pregnant bride away from a raucous wedding feast, while the guests revel in the obvious scandal—one even making the sign of the cuckold behind the groom’s back. Steen himself appears in the painting, mischievously playing a friction drum, adding to the sense of both festivity and ridicule.
Like the painting, the music makes fun of the bridegroom, capturing the theatricality and biting humor of the scene with rhythmically charged gestures and expressive lyricism. But beyond the surface mockery, Dance of the Cuckold also delves into the psychological turmoil of betrayal—the groom’s quiet suffering beneath the laughter, the echoes of a romance that never came to fruition. This tension between derision and despair plays out in the viola’s voice, shifting between raucous dance and moments of introspection. Written for Australian violist Raphael Masters, the piece embraces the instrument’s capacity for both playfulness and poignancy, painting a musical picture as vivid as Steen’s canvas.
This piece is No. 3 in a series of solo pieces for string quintet: two pieces for violin, one for viola, one for cello, and one for double bass. The sixth and final piece in the series is composed for the full string quintet. Each work is inspired by a painting by a Dutch Master displayed in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, creating a musical dialogue between visual art and sound.