“Estágio”
Daniele
Gugelmo Dias, Ms
Assistant Professor - School of Music- University of Rio
Grande do Norte/Brasil
PhD Student
– State University of Campinas (Unicamp) - Núcleo Interdisciplinar de
Comunicação Sonora /Brasil
Guest PhD
Student - Politecnico di
Milano/ Italy
email: daniele@nics.unicamp.br
Abstract
The proposal of this study,
developed at the Generative Design Lab, Politecnico Milano, is to take contact
with a multidisciplinary approach to produce an artistic work. We started with
a thought about the problem of the tonality disintegration in the XX Century
Music, taking the atonalism in Schoenberg as a theoretical reference. Conscious
of the influence that arts and medium can exert one to another, we begun our
investigation about sounds, images and words. This research considers experimentation and creation
like a way to make art.
1.Introduction
When I did the biographic research about Schoenberg I realized the
rapport between him and Kandinsky, father of abstractionism. This opened a way
to reflect the possible parallelism between atonalism and abstractionism.
Both, Schoenberg and Kandinsky, coming from the tradition, the first with the tonalism and the second with the figurative art, slowly disintegrated
it. [1] It can be observed there were a lot of common points in their
productions. It can be seen the similarities in their ideas, spiritualism,
attitude and cultural interests but each one made always his own way, each one
produced his own work. They didn’t make music translated in paint or paint
translated in music.
“Their attitude was more ‘religious’, they believed in ‘another’ world
that could be viewed in the art, above of form there are the contents, the
intimate essence of chooses above extern aspect, emancipate of dissonance of
notes from traditional harmony like of colours”.[2]
The
meeting of their bright minds was a great inspiration to our work.
We studied
compared trajectory about Schoenberg and Kandinsky to trace a profile of the musical and painting art of the beginning of the XX Century. In this comparison, like Hahl-Koch
[3] shows, we could observe that both had more or less at the same time common
interests and productions. They had interests for music, painting, theatre and
let a lot of letters and writes about their thought.
Since the beginning of XX Century it’s possible to see the parallelism
betweem their works, but they had not yet had a meeting. The
first meeting between Kandinsky and Schoenberg was in 1911 and until 1914 they
had a friendship documented in letters and
family encounters. From 1914 to 1921 they had any
contact. Both had spiritual artistic affinities.
Kandinsky was
8 years older than Schoenberg, he begun to paint
after 30, but his artistic evolution ocurred in the same time with those of
Schoenberg. They
received public reconnaissance always contemporary, but in parallels ways. This evidence is so surprisingly that one
could think that one influenced the other. But this affirmation is wrong
because before 1911 one didn’t know anything about the other, and from
1914-1921 they didn’t have any contact. In table 1 we compare some points of
their trajectories, to demonstrate the similarities:
Table 1 –Comparison between Schoenberg and Kandinsky chronology.
|
Years |
Arnold Schoenberg (Vienn –
1874/Los Angeles-1951) |
Wassily Kandinsky (Moscow-1866/Neuilly-sur-Seine-1944) |
|
|
|
When he was child studied music (piano and
violoncello). |
|
1896 |
|
Begin studies of painting |
|
1899 |
Verklart Nächt, op. 4
(theme: pair of lovers) |
|
|
1903 |
Pelleas und Melisande Jugendstil Gurrelieder (1900 and
1911) |
Natural language, fable, legend, pair of
lovers, folk motives: “L’Addio” 1903 “Il suonatore gusli” 1907 “Notte di Luna” 1907 |
|
1906-07 |
Search of new expressive way:
String Quartet, op.
10 (1907-8) - crescent atonalism |
“Autum in Bavaria” (1908) “Castlel Garden” 1908 “Summer landscape” 1909 “Church of Murnau” 1908-09 |
|
1906-12 |
Schoenberg painter: realized the major part
of his painting (70 oils, 160 acquarello and drawing) |
|
|
1908-9 |
Klavierstucke, op 11
(1909) – higher point of atonalism |
Begin his first ‘Scenic Composition’ |
|
1910 |
His first exposition like painter. Colours, op.
16, one of 5 pieces for orchestra (anticipation of compositions based on
Klangfarbenmelodie) |
The first Acquarello abstracte. Finish The Spiritual in the Art Improvisation VII (1910) |
|
1911 |
Finish Harmonielehre |
|
|
1911-12 |
|
In Berlin – Exposition organized by
Kandinsky with 4 painting of Schoenberg. |
|
1912 |
Pierrot
Lunaire
|
First personal exposition |
|
1913 |
Gurrelieder first
performance at Vienn |
Publication of: Kandinsky 1903-1913 Composition VII (1913) Poem: “Klange” (Sounds) |
|
1914 |
|
Music compositions to Scenic Composition |
|
1921 |
Op. 25, Suite for Piano, first time
to use the dodecafon system;
|
In Russia in the same year his pictoric
language shows geometric forms with more rigorous |
|
1922 |
|
Professor in Bauhaus New style, reduction of fundamentals form
and primary colours.
|
|
1925 |
Professor of composition (Akademia der Kunste –
Berlin) |
|
|
1933 |
Immigration to New York |
Change to Neuilly-sur-Seine |
2. Analyse of «Verklart Nächt», op. 4
With the goal to study to create an artistic work we
decided to decode Schoenberg. Firstly we broached his atonality
like a poetic. To know how a musical system transforms itself we decided to
analyse a Schoenberg’s composition. We listened to some Schoenberg’s
compositions [4] and we decided to begin the study of “Verklärt Nacht”,
op. 4 [5], because it:
a)belongs to
the first creative period of Schoenberg – a romantic period.
b)has a significant way to deconstruction the tonality, it has points of
very clear tonality and points of undefined tonalities;
c)uses a poem (by Richard Dehmel: Transfigured Night) to
conception and construction the music, without
singing voices. There are two sections: in the first section a woman speaking,
in the second a man.
We began to study the logics structures and transforming codes in
Schoenberg. Many questions were posed, for example: There are transforming
codes in music? Or there is a row of transforming codes? Which are they? How
does one define it? Which would be the transforming codes of atonal music?
Which would be the transforming codes in Schoenberg’s composition?
We made a general analyse that includes motifs, phrases, variations, sequences,
harmony. We discovered a Golden Section (comp. 229) where Schoenberg worked
with tonality and dialog among instruments.
Besides
some questions we arrived to a model of system
organization:
First Organization of Analyse
1.Motif
1.1.Variation
1.2.Timbro
2.Sequence
3.Tonality
3.1.
Cromaticism
In this way we considered the motifs like a code and its variations
like a manner of transforming this code. Then, we begun to study the
structures of this analyse, the structures of this system. We saw that was
possible remark also ‘phrases’ in this analyse:
Second Organization of Analyse
1.Phrases
2.Motifs: principal and secondary
3.Acompaniged Melody (with harmony)
4.Golden Section
5.The anacrus like principal motivic element
6.General structure
Finally we found an organization by an arrangement of the
elements:
Third Organization of Analyse
Index of elements of analyse
1.Motif/Phrase
2.Melody
3.Variazione
(Sequence)
4.Harmony (Principal Tonalities)
5.Accompaniement structure
In this
way we organized a Maximum System includes: form, harmony, melody, and a Minimum System that includes
basically variations of phrases and motifs. Then, our
operative hypothesis was the structure of motifs of «Verklärt Nacht».
Table 2 – The Maximum System of the
piece
Organization
(Maximum System)
|
|
|
Form |
Derived
of poem Richard Dehmel 2
distinct parts: the first there is an aspect closed and obscure; the second
is opened and clear. There
are a Golden Section (comp. 259) characterized a tonal melody in dialog among
different instruments. |
|
Melody |
Constructed
by phrases, and these phrases are constructed by motifs. The motifs are very
important to counterpoint, form lines, to development and variations. |
|
Harmony |
Centralized
in D Major and D minor. Large use of sequences, phrases and motifs also.
Modulations and chromatist presents indicate a lot of regions without a
specific tonality. |
We arrived at a kind of cell of music that we named Minimum System. In
this point we observed how maybe Schoenberg thought the development. He worked
across the motifs and its variations to organize the
plot of the piece.
The concept of motif is very important for Schoenberg and it is
intrinsically linked to the concept of variation. Like he observes:
«A motif appears
continuously in a composition: it is repeated. The simple repetition however
produce monotony, this even can be avoided across variation»[6]
The study of
variations is very reach and demonstrate how Schoenberg
though and developed his music. He affirms that:
«The
variation means change: but to change each element
produces something stranger, incoherent and non logical, destruct the basic
form of motif. Consequently, the variation require the change of some factors
less important and the conservation of others more important. The preservation
of rhythmic elements produces effectively, coherence (even so, the monotony
can’t be avoided without little changes). The determination of elements more
important depends on compositional objectives: through of substantially change
it’s possible to produce a variety of motifs adaptable to each formal
function.» [6]
In table 3 there are the variations that occur in Verklart Nacht:
Table 3. The variations of the
piece «Verklärt Nacht»
|
Variations (Minimum System) |
|
|
1 |
Pitch (chromatist, diatonicism,
Major and Minor tonalities, change of tonality) |
|
2 |
Sense
of phrase/motif |
|
3 |
Ornamentation |
|
4 |
Rhythm
(polyrhythm, dislocation of the rhythm) |
|
5 |
Addition
of notes, accomplish of space |
|
6 |
Repetition,
Sequences |
|
7 |
Contrast
between sections (counterpoint, bloc of chords, melody with accompaniment) |
|
8 |
Timbre
(pizzicato, string indication, harmonics, dynamic, instrumentation) |
We founnd
a total of 62 motifs and/or phrases, including some variations in our analyse.
These elements were organised, divised, repeated, combined on 4 Principal
Phrases, 4 complete melody, 13 Secondary Phrases, 39 Accompaniment Motifs, 14
Variations and 19 Sequences. These elements were organized in different manners
and we also found a Golden Section (comp 259). Above in Image 1 we can
see the first and second phrase on the score, and it following the Graphic 1
presents the general organization of the piece including the tonalities and
Golden Section:
Figure
1 – Motif 1 and 2, measures 1-3.
