Artists have always struggled to depict music through art, often without success. This is a rare exception. The strings of the harp echo the extraordinary vertical rhythm of the skyscrapers of New York, and through this visual reverberation, Armfield suggests the parallel structures of architecture and music. Just as architecture creates and defines space, music creates and defines sound. More specifically, the painting evokes the structure of counterpoint in a score by Bach, whose music, although diverse, is ordered through the vertical relationships of notes within a scale. Accordingly, Armfield includes an inscription on the harp, which reads: diverse parts in ordered harmony. Bach wrote very little for the harp because it was not a professional ensemble instrument until the early Romantic Period, but the key to Armfield's depiction of the instrument, with its regular array of vertical... (http://www.leicestergalleries.com/19th-20th-century-paintings/d/maxwell-ashby-armfield/11406)