Still life with lute

Godfrey Miller believed that painting and music were the richest sources for the communication of metaphysical ideas. Seeking to demonstrate the structural equivalence between these two forms of expression, in 1935 he wrote:

Music is not now merely a flowing past – as it were horizontal rhythmic measure. It appears also of a vertical nature ... By that I mean that the structure is expressed as the modern painters are expressing their structure ... I can see the same mentality ... rhythm binds together so finely but it has the shortcomings of not raising itself high vertically. The geometrical line of thought, with its ability of thinking of things towering and mounting has great power. I can see the value of Cézanne’s notes of pure colour. I can see also Picasso’s piling up of things – bits of paper, pamphlets, books and playing cards ... A structure must raise itself.