There appears three broad categories of art: The arts of music, the arts of words, and the arts of media. There is, of course, exchange between them. The poem is musical, and the subset of poems called lyrics is seemingly a perfect blend of word and music. Calligraphy is more an art of a particular medium than an art of words, but it is still intrinsically an art of words, and a graphic designer needs to be as concerned with what the words say as with how they look. The picture book, then, springs to mind as the first artifact touching all three; though music takes a backseat to the words and medium, those words are often poetical and meant to be read aloud. They are to be tasted on the tongue, and their sounds enjoyed.
These thoughts passed through my head on a long drive, but as I sit down to write them out, I cannot now connect medium and music without the intermediary of words. There are, of course, visualizers, but they seem too mechanical—Dance!
Of course, and here we find the pinnacle of arts, the art that brings all arts together is what I might call stagecraft, though I’m including movies here too. The actors say the words, the music plays, and they perform. No wonder actors are such terrible people when they must approach something so terrible and awesome. No wonder stagecraft encompasses the coarsest cash-grabs of commercial porn and the greatest heights of Shakespeare.
Tale Told 