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Kandinsky's Dissonance and a Schoenbergian View of <Em University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 7-10-2008 Kandinsky’s Dissonance and a Schoenbergian View of Composition VI Shannon M. Annis University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Annis, Shannon M., "Kandinsky’s Dissonance and a Schoenbergian View of Composition VI" (2008). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/122 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Kandinsky’s Dissonance and a Schoenbergian View of Composition VI by Shannon M. Annis A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of Art History College of Visual and Performing Arts University of South Florida Major Professor: Riccardo Marchi, Ph.D. Elisabeth Fraser, Ph.D. Maria Cizmic, Ph.D. Date of Approval: July 10, 2008 Keywords: music, abstraction, painting, structure, theory © Copyright 2008, Shannon Annis Table of Contents List of Figures.................................................................................................................. ii Abstract........................................................................................................................... iii Introduction.......................................................................................................................1 Relationship between the Arts ..........................................................................................4 Context for Kandinsky’s Encounter with Schoenberg......................................................5 Kandinsky’s Response to Schoenberg’s Music ................................................................7 Schoenberg’s Dissonance ...............................................................................................10 Marc, Schoenberg and Kandinsky’s Composition II ......................................................18 Kandinsky’s Knowledge of Music Theory.....................................................................22 Kandinsky’s Theory and Musical Concepts ...................................................................24 Consonance and Dissonance...............................................................................24 Color, Form and Contemporary Harmony..........................................................26 Types of Composition for Painting.....................................................................31 Dissonance in the Spirit of the Times.................................................................34 Reminiscences.................................................................................................................36 Dissonant Composition and a Schoenbergian View of Composition VI ........................39 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................46 References Cited .............................................................................................................49 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................53 i List of Figures Figure 1. Photograph of Composition II.................................................................57 Figure 2. Sketch for Composition II .......................................................................58 Figure 3. Impression III..........................................................................................59 Figure 4. Composition VI .......................................................................................60 ii Kandinsky’s Dissonance and a Schoenbergian View of Composition VI Shannon M. Annis ABSTRACT In this study, I clarify the relationship between Wassily Kandinsky’s move towards abstraction in painting and his encounters with the music and theory of Arnold Schoenberg. Prior studies have concentrated on the similarities in their theories, but I examine Kandinsky idiosyncratic understanding of Schoenbergian concepts and the evolution of his engagement with music theory over the period of 1909 to 1914. I identify dissonance as the aspect of Schoenberg’s music and theory that Kandinsky found most relevant to his own developing compositional theory for abstract painting. In music, dissonance is commonly considered to be combinations of tones that sound harsh or discordant. Schoenberg denied the traditional opposition between consonance (conventionally pleasing sounds) and dissonance and advocated, at this stage of his career, for the use of any combination or progression of notes as long as it served the needs of a specific composition. Similarly, Kandinsky described his compositional strategies for abstract painting as the arrangement of colors and forms in the specific context of an individual work, with the “principle of dissonance” as a guide. Kandinsky’s “principle of dissonance” was a compositional structure consisting of a multitude of oppositions and contrasts of colors and forms, producing disorienting and conflicting effects, that Kandinsky held in dynamic tension across the whole painting to produce a iii unifying equilibrium. This “principle of dissonance” was not completely congruent, in its specific compositional procedures, with the meaning and use of dissonance in either the conventional music theory of the period or in Schoenberg’s alternate conception of dissonance. However, Schoenberg’s arguments for the acceptability of unresolved dissonances and what Kandinsky perceived as an “antilogical” compositional structure bolstered Kandinsky’s assertions that these principles could support legitimate compositional strategies for his abstract painting. Finally, I analyze Kandinsky’s account of the creation of his 1913 Composition VI and how his description bears the traces of his engagement with Schoenberg. Kandinsky details a structure for Composition VI that, comparable to his understanding of Schoenberg’s work, is not immediately obvious, but in which any combination of forms can be juxtaposed to create a unifying whole in the context of the specific work. iv Introduction A dynamic engagement between music and the visual arts was a critical factor in the emergence of abstraction in early 20th century art in general,1 and particularly in the theoretical and artistic developments of Wassily Kandinsky as he moved towards painting that would not refer to objects as they appear in the visible world. What painting lacked, and what Kandinsky described as its most critical need if it was to move into the realm of abstraction, was a compositional theory comparable to the theory of harmony in music.2 Kandinsky’s encounters with the music and theory of Arnold Schoenberg form a crucial juncture in his exploration of music theory as a model for such a compositional theory for abstract painting. The parallels between the works of Kandinsky and Schoenberg have been addressed frequently in recent art historical literature with prior 1 See Judith Zilczer, “Music for the Eyes: Abstract Painting and Light Art,” in Kerry Brougher, Jeremy Strick, Ari Wiseman and Judith Zilczer, Visual Music: Synaesthesia in Art and Music Since 1900 (New York:Thames and Hudson, 2005); Javier Arnaldo, “Musical Analogies” in Analogías musicales: Kandinsky y sus contemporaneous (Madrid: Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisz, 2003) and Musée d’Orsay, Aux origins de l’abstraction: 1800-1914: Musée d’Orsay , 3 novembre 2003 – 22 février 2004 (Paris: Réunion des musées nationaux, 2003) for recent reviews of the general use of musical analogy in early abstraction. 2 See Kandinsky’s letters to Schoenberg dated 9 April 1911 and 22 August 1912 in Jelena Hahl-Koch (ed.), John C. Crawford (trans.), Arnold Schoenberg – Wassily Kandinsky, Letters, Pictures and Documents (Boston: Faber and Faber, 1984), 27-28, 56-58. Hereafter, Schoenberg-Kandinsky Letters. There were, of course, theories addressing methods of composition in the visual arts dating back to Alberti. Kandinsky was looking for a certain type of compositional theory, similar to that of music, that he thought would be useful for abstract painting – one suitable not for the arrangement of objects, but the ordering of the elements of painting itself. For a review of compositional theories for painting, and a discussion of their relation to Kandinsky see Hubert Locher, “Towards a Science of Art: the Concept of ‘Pure Composition’ in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Art Theory,” in Paul Taylor, Ed., Pictorial Composition from Medieval to Modern Art (London: Warburg Institute, 2000), p. 217-251. Also see a discussion of Kandinsky’s concept of composition and compositional theory in Felix Thürlemann’s essay on a previously unpublished manuscript in “Wer sehen kann, wird das Richtige fühlen: Kandinskys Entwürfe zu einer Kompositionslehre” in Helmut Friedel, Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner-Stiftung Eds., Wassily Kandinsky: Gesammelte Schriften 1889-1916 (Munich: Prestel, 2007). 1 studies typically concentrating on the similarities in their theories.3 I contend that the complexity of the relationships between the artists’ theory and works can not be fully revealed in examinations that focus on just the convergence
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