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| Thomas Sword Good The Power of Music 1823 oil on panel Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle-upon-Tyne |
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| Sigismund Goetze Thy Voice is like to Music heard ere Birth, Some Spirit-Lute touched on a Spirit-Sea 1902 oil on canvas Lady Lever Art Gallery, Liverpool |
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| George Hayter The Honourable Charlotte Stuart and the Honourable Louisa Stuart 1830 oil on canvas Government Art Collection, London |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau Les charmes de la vie ca. 1718-19 oil on canvas Wallace Collection, London |
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| Gabriël Metsu The Duet ca. 1660 oil on panel National Trust, Upton House, Warwickshire |
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| Jacob Ochtervelt The Music Lesson 1670 oil on canvas Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, West Midlands |
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| Jean Jouvenet Madame de Maintenon as St Cecilia ca. 1680 oil on canvas Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, County Durham |
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| Giovanni Costa Two Girls Singing ca. 1880 oil on canvas Museum of Croydon, London |
The Sound of Music
When I tell you I love
the song "Edelweiss"
you have to understand
that even though I too
am a sophisticate
who scorns musicals,
I was once a little girl
who stood in my grand-
father's living room
singing, Cuckoo!
Cuckoo! while he sipped
his scotch and laughed
at my preciosity.
And when I sing the lyrics
in your ear – Small and
bright, clean and white,
you look happy to meet me
– you have to understand
my grandfather only ever
had one friend, a jeweler
who also drank scotch,
and left his $10,000 Rolex
to my grandfather, who
wore it even though
it turned his wrist green,
wore it to the funeral,
where the daughter sang
in her ethereal voice. Blossom
of snow may you bloom
and grow, bloom and grow
forever. She couldn't take
her eyes off the casket.
You have to understand
my grandfather kept spinning
that heavy gold around
his wrist, and when he raised
his voice to join in, he cried
to sing it. Edelweiss, edelweiss,
bless my homeland forever.
– Kathryn Nuernberger (2011)
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| Harold Knight Flute Player 1895 oil on canvas Nottingham Castle Museum and Art Gallery |
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| Wilfrid de Glehn Portrait of Florence Hooton 1934 oil on canvas Royal Academy of Music, London |
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| George Adolphus Storey The Violinist 1886 oil on canvas Guildhall Art Gallery, London |
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| Edward Burne-Jones Music 1877 oil on canvas Ashmolean Museum, Oxford |
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| John Melhuish Strudwick When Apples were Golden and Songs were Sweet But Summer had Passed Away ca. 1906 oil on canvas Manchester Art Gallery |
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| Thomas Saunders Nash The Choristers 1951 oil on canvas Leicestershire County Hall, Leicester |
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| Louis Wain Three Cats Singing ca. 1925-39 gouache on paper Wellcome Collection, London |