The early years of the 20th Century signed a terrific advance in the Physical Sciences. The Special (1905) and General (1916) Theories of Relativity and the advent of Quantum Mechanics (1926) changed our lives profoundly. Around the same years, a similar revolution took place in both Music and Art. The year 1909 marks a decisive break with tonality (the structure of classical music) by Arnold Schönberg in his “Three Piano Pieces”. The term ‘Atonality’ is commonly used to express this new type of composition. Wassily Kandinsky is credited with painting the first ‘purely abstract’ works. His production is vast and I could only include 20 of his works here, selected from a period of time that overlaps with the musical pieces by Schönberg presented in this video. They knew each other and have possibly influenced their works reciprocally. The video is an attempt to evince this intriguing ‘connection’ between music and painting.
About Arnold Schönberg (1874-1951):
…The final piece (of the Three Piano Pieces, Op.11) breaks through all constraints of traditional language or structure, cutting abruptly from extremes of eruptive power, as in the massively congested opening, to the most intense introspection. Perhaps Schoenberg had in mind Kandinsky, with whom he had close contacts, when he likened such music to developments in painting -“without architecture… an ever-changing, unbroken succession of colours, rhythms and moods.” (From a Text by Peter Hill).
About Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944):
…As the “Der Blaue Reiter”(*) Almanac essays and theorizing with composer Arnold Schönberg indicate, Kandinsky also expressed the communion between artist and viewer as being available to both the senses and the mind (Synesthesia). Hearing tones and chords as he painted, Kandinsky theorized that, for instance, yellow is the colour of middle C on a brassy trumpet; black is the colour of closure, and the end of things; and that combinations of colours produce vibrational frequencies, akin to chords played on a piano. Kandinsky also developed a theory of geometric figures and their relationships, claiming, for example, that the circle is the most peaceful shape and represents the human soul. (From Wikipedia).
Content:
Three Piano Pieces, Op.11 (1909)
(00:00) 01. At a Moderate Speed
(05:00) 02. At a Moderate Speed
(14:46) 03. With Motion
Six Little Piano Pieces, Op.19 (1911)
(17:36) 04. Lightly, Gently
(19:03) 05. Slowly
(19:58) 06. Very Slowly
(20:56) 07. Quickly but Light
(21:22) 08. Rather Quickly
(21:59) 09. Very Slowly
Five Piano Pieces, Op.23 (1920)
(23:19) 10. Very Slowly
(25:36) 11. Very Quickly
(27:06) 12. Slowly
(30:30) 13. Sweepingly
(33:04) 14. Waltz
Suite for Piano, Op.25 (1921-1923)
(36:39) 15. Praeludium
(37:43) 16. Gavotte
(38:54) 17. Musette
(40:12) 18. Gavotte
(41:27) 19. Intermezzo
(45:39) 20. Menuett
(47:42) 21. Trio
(48:19) 22. Menuett
(49:52) 23. Gigue
(52:30) 24. Piano Piece, Op.33A (1928)
(54:53) 25. Piano Piece, Op.33B (1928)
Note Added: (*) Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) was a group of artists from the Neue ünstlervereinigung München in Munich, Germany. The group was founded by a number of Russian emigrants, including Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, and native German artists, such as Franz Marc, August Macke and Gabriele Münter. Der Blaue Reiter was a movement lasting from 1911 to 1914, fundamental to Expressionism, along with Die Brücke which was founded in 1905.
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