Mondrian Variations

Prologue

The following disc material is the second part of an audiovisual artistic project which I began in 2003, based on my observations of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s (1525-1569) paintings at the Prado museum in Madrid.

Looking at his works, a perception came intuitally into my mind.That is, Bruegel’s visual compositions mimic the rules of musical compositions. If that were true, it might open a possibility for transporting a painting into the spheres of music. My work has since evolved on the grounds of this idea and observation. Its goal, at the same time, was to illuminate the comparative methods of creation in music and the visual arts. With this manner of approach, I have attempted to make Bruegel’s oeuvre speak through music.

Being a visual artist, the project invited me to start a fascinating adventure. A painting, regardless of it representing a school or –”ism”, is a condensation in every instance. A rigid picture is where the artist essays to describe a story, a situation, an idea, a feeling. This composition he tries to express on the angular canvas with the tools of either time or space - or both at the same time.

Bruegel’s paintings were still an easy material to work with. I went back to the Gothic arts, as that was one of the substantial points in the uplifting of European art, and thinking. For this reason, it also became a starting point of my work on Bruegel’s paintings.

Because of the novel use of perspective, more timelines appeared simultaneously in the Gothic arts. Breaking through the space, the Gothic perspective could include more layers of time, these emerged then, for the first time in Western art history. This era was the birth of time perspective. The past and present time perspectives took the observer, for the first time, into a space and made him a part of it. It was not only the painting’s structure that changed, caused by the new division of the space, but its mythology as well. At that instant, the internal and external, the public and private got separated from each other, altering the World scene, and so leading to a reorganization of time and space. The norm of using a space became different, because of the possibilities of using multiple time throughout the space. An elaborate time structure evolved in the work, turning it into a long series of episodes of events happening at different times (see, for instance, the Calvary pictures).

In my case, this was exactly what I was interested in: for is it possible to open up musically the perspective of the time, the composition, the space, the theme of the picture? Is it possible to reveal the musical content of Bruegel’s concentrated series of events using his own composition methods, so as to make them audible?

What does a painting sound like? Is there really a bridge between the visual and musical languages? Is music able to interpret a visual work, and yet still carry the same emotional experience? How can music express in time and space a piece of visual art that is compressed in a single instant?

Due to my thoughts above, I had several difficulties thoughout my work on the project. I was in need of a pianist, who has an empathy, an affinity, to compose and organize the scores. I asked pianist Nikoletta Máté for her collaboration. My work’s central conflict was the basic idea itself. We were not composing music inspired by an art work as in the case of Pictures of an Exhibition by Mussorgsky. Our score was derived directly from the painting with strict rules, since the notes were already given. The notes could not be touched and moved in favor of a more pleasant sound. Altering them would lead to the distortion of the original painting. Alternatives could be only given by means of musical signs, such as treble clef, bass clef, or key signatures, octave changes, and accidentals respectively. Accidentals offered the freedom of playing certain pitches a half note higher or lower, but nothing more.

This was the compositional part of the project, but in the museum I had another important perception that directed my attention towards metaphysics. During the working process, this perception turned out to be the most relevant question of the project.

In case the transposition would succeed and music would born from a painting, how should I relate to the cognition? How much was Bruegel aware of these hidden qualities? Sensitive question, but the major task was not to prove this consciousness. I was interested in the occult knowledge, in the intuition, in the skill of instinctive anticipation that adds to a work of an artist. Furthermore, that is indispensable for the work of an artist. Intuition: how conscious, or unconscious it is, has no importance for me.

A friend of mine, Károly Ludvigh, who has supported my project both intellectually and financially from the very beginning, contemplated about intuition the following way:

„The word intuition has Latin origins. Its first syllable ”In” means in. Latin origin word as well: Tueor, tueri = to see, to look at, to contemplate; to keep an eye on something, to observe, to pay attention, to screen, to protect, to maintain; to support, to feed, to nurture. Consequently, intuition is a instinctive observation, paying attention. The result of its persistent practice is the recognition of something, what – potentially - existed already before.

So, to see, to look at. But with the prefix in: to look into, to get an insight into something. Where to look into? Question referring to a place, a space. In other words intuition is space observation, space introspection. But what kind of place? Since its basis is instinctiveness one can conclude apparently only a type of cosmic, spiritual space, where information is stored – nutriment, accordingly.

That is to say, entrance into a space with nutriment noted by mere observation, looking. (This – on the margin – is the essence of meditation, of trance.) This is the intuition. A mental stage that is able to identify information. A mental stage that is qualified to be a nutriment and that is protected, shielded, maintained by a series of codes at one given instance: insight ”

The Bruegel picture-music suggests, that the world is rich in such information. However, this information is not accessible for the rational, left brain logic. The left brain thinking strives for prohibiting the perception of such kind of information, while the right brain thinking is open for it.

Bruegel decoded the ether and created new codes. The solution of the new codes he closed into enigma-like oil paintings. As he would work with synesthesia.

The master worked of course with material, with tender, colored clay. Although, he hardly knew, that he can thank the light’s physical waves for the color. Waves or vibrancy, that made him excited day by day. He hardly knew, that according to the ancient lifeless but still living rules of Synesthesia, all of his paintings are sounds fixed in picture. In colors accumulated music-time.

The pieces were finally ready in 2006. To my surprise, it did not only work, but once the works were decoded, the secret came to the surface as well. One of the great examples is the Procession to Calvary. Here Jesus, who is almost lost in the mass of people in the cenre of the painting by the cross of the two diagonals, appears only one single time represented by a high ”C” in the score. In case, the spectator would not find the figure of Jesus with his first look, he definitely shouts for his presence in the music. The listener cannot miss this moment while listening to the piece.

I could list the surprising moments endlessly. But after all, this CD material is not related to Bruegel, but to Mondrian. For this reason, I only attempted to note as much about Bruegel as it is necessary for the introduction of the Mondrian Variations and for the understanding of its thematic.

Mondrian Variations

In 2003 an other thing happened as well, to which I did pay much attention at that time. Although, time proved, that things come on surface of consciousness, when it is time for them to do so. The same day of visiting the museum Prado, I saw another piece of art in the halls of Museum Reina Sofia, located close to Prado. It was the work of Piet Mondrian. Apparently, I was not able to recognize the anthology between the two artists. It was only towards the end of my project related to the paintings of Bruegel, when a feeling possessed me. That is, Mondrian’s oeuvre hides similar secrets to his predecessor’s paintings.

The discovery lead to my next project on Piet Mondrian’s art together with pianist Éva Polgár in 2009. Éva took responsibility for composing and enlarging the scores, and interpreting the piano part of the final works.

We owned already the starting method of the composition process. It was the same as we had employed for Bruegel. However, it became quickly evident that we could use this method solely for the first paintings Composition in Line 1916 – 1917 and Composition No.10 in Black and White [Pier and the Ocean, 1915 ]. Since in the continuation Mondrian was using colors, space and rhythms, the same approach did not work with his later paintings. So, the technique had to be redefined. We had to proceed from colors and the size of spaces occupied by colors. New possibilities were opened up by Composition with Grid 8. 1919. By this work, the number and rhythm of variations of three colors - blue, red and orange - as well as the spaces’ same time unite directed us toward the more elaborate pieces: Broadway Boogie Woogie, Victory Boogie Woogie, New York City 1.

The Mondrian Variations was finally finished after three years. Leaving behind the figural paintings before 1913/14, we selected seven works in chronological order. With this selection, we took under consideration the choice of such pieces of Piet Mondrian’s entire oeuvre that could best summarize and represent the artist’s different periods. We split the material for three parts:

Laren - Blaricum 1915-1919
01. Pier and Ocean (Composition No.10 in Black and White) 1915
02. Composition with line 1917

Paris 1919-38
03. Composition with Grid 8, 1919
04. Composition with Yellow, Blue, Black and Grey, 1921

London – New York 1938-1944
05. New York City (unfinished) 1941
06. Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1942/1943
07. Victory Boogie Woogie (unfinished) 1942/1944

It will be Éva Polgár, who will write later about the compositional methods of these works.

Finally. I do not wish to make a connection between my artistic identity and thoughts about arts with those of Mondrian’s ideas and philosophy. They do not meet in every case. Rather not - then yes. Yet I allude to Piet Mondrian in the validity of our common work with Éva Polgár, in the authority of the completion of the Mondrian Variations, and in the support of his paintings transposed into music.

The initial unity was the principle of Mondrian’s art theory. This unity came to realization in the harmony of opposite polars, in the completeness of masculine and feminine elements.

Plato, going back to his androgyn myth and his theosophical philosophy of evolution, was seeking the true felicity in the complete harmony of the male and female principles.

In his system, the feminine element is static, horizontal, and material while the masculine is vertical and spiritual. Negative and positive poles magnetize each other. In the human, planetary life the two genders separated, and as its resolution, the original peace and harmony split. However, there exist human beings who are able to unify the duality again. They are the artists.

Based on this thought - whoever the artist might be – he obviously desires to translate and define these principles’ intention for the union and harmony of his own picture. I do it the same way. Although, being a visual artist, I take the liberty to point out that music expresses best the unique experience of the union of these principles. Music is the field, where human soul can sense the most of dissolution and union of genuses. This is the eroticism of music.

It is an addition to the creation of Mondrian Variations, that it reflects the collaboration of a women and a man. Enjoy listening to the ancient unity of this harmony of feminine and masculine power!