Johannes Vermeer News: Song Released Celebrating His Painting Girl With A Pearl Earring
Inspired and enamored by the magic of the Girl With A Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer, New York-based Alex Genadinik released his single: Girl With A Pearl Earring Song on September 22nd, 2022.
The song pays homage to Vermeer, and it’s one of the rare songs about paintings. It walks the line between being consistent with art history while adding something unique of its own to music and art history.
One unique thing the song does is it gives a voice to the girl with the pearl earring by adding a female voice to the song. The song is a male and female duet. It starts with the male protagonist becoming enamored with the girl in the painting just like most people do. But about 45 seconds into the song, the listener is surprised by the introduction of a female vocalist.
The female vocalist adds energy to the song, and symbolically, the female voice empowers the girl in the painting because in the painting she doesn’t have much of a voice. Her eyes are quite vocal, and she has a fascinating and mysterious facial expression, but we don’t know exactly what she is trying to express.
The Girl With A Pearl Earring Is Given Her Unique Voice
Of course, in various Girl With A Pearl Earring movies, the girl did come alive, so it’s not the first time she’s moved or spoken. But this is the first time she has sung her thoughts in a song. In the song, the girl isn’t meek. She has a voice and she has concerns and even frustrations. Her issue is that every passerby falls in love with her. It’s tiresome. She’s really waiting for her prince, but it’s not easy to wait in a painting for hundreds of years.
Some of her lyrics are “I’m asking an eternal question: will I have my Cinderella transformation?” What’s interesting about this lyric is that the girl with a pearl earring really is princess-like. And like Cinderella, she has plenty of humility. Another interesting parallel is that both of these aren’t real, but are at the same time some of the most famous women in history. Unfortunately, the parallels between Cinderella and the girl with a pearl earring soon end because while Cinderella does meet a prince, in the song, the girl doesn’t. The girl with a pearl earring stays longing and waiting, forever tied to Vermeer in art history and perhaps greater world history.
