Gesamtkunstwerk
Gesamtkunstwerk — a term introduced into circulation by the composer Richard Wagner in the mid-19th century. Its literal meaning is "the total work of art." This concept Wagner used to describe the "art of the future," which he envisioned as a synthesis, a unification of all kinds of arts. This concept marked the beginning of the pan-aesthetic positions of Romanticism. For Wagner, the embodiment of this synthesis was musical drama productions with the use of specific stage effects. Many of Wagner's contemporaries shared his idealistic aspirations. This idea was preached by the writer, music critic, and philosopher Vladimir Odoevsky in Russia. In Switzerland, a synthetic approach to art was used for stage designs in the works of Adolphe Appia, a theater artist and theorist, and in England, by Edward Gordon Craig. The influence of the ideas of the synthesis of the arts can be observed in the productions of Diaghilev's "Russian Ballet," and Eisenstein embodied the idea of Gesamtkunstwerk in the film industry.
In the first half of the 20th century, the idea of the synthesis of the arts continued to soar in the air and inspire the search for new expressive means among artists, musicians, and art theorists. Among those who actively engaged with the issue of the "synthesis of the arts" was Wassily Kandinsky. After all, Kandinsky was not only an artist but a creator in a broad sense. He wrote poetry, was fond of music and theater, and felt a certain relationship between different types of art and the necessity of combining them to create something special, new, and unique. He first spoke about this in his book Concerning the Spiritual in Art, where he voiced the idea of the spiritual kinship of all types of art, especially music and painting. In the future, he continued to develop this idea. In Kandinsky's understanding, the maximum essence of synthetic art (in his terminology, "monumental") could be manifested in "stage compositions." What distinguished them from ordinary stage productions was that they were abstract. Color was paramount. It was on the stage that color was to find a movement that was not available to it in painting.
Between 1909 and 1914, Kandinsky created four stage compositions: Green Sound, Purple Curtain, Black and White, and Yellow Sound. The last composition was the most significant and interesting. Its libretto was published in the almanac The Blue Rider in 1912. And in 1914, Kandinsky, together with his colleagues and friends A. Kubin, F. Marc, and A. Macke, was busy preparing the production of Yellow Sound in Munich. According to the artist, the composition was to harmoniously combine music, color, movement, and word (orchestra, colored projectors, pantomime, and singers). The composer Thomas de Hartmann wrote the music for it. But the authors never saw their own project on stage — the First World War began. The piece was first performed only many decades later, on May 12, 1972, at the Guggenheim Museum.
Kandinsky had another opportunity to realize his dreams during his teaching period at the Bauhaus. The cultural life of the institution was open to all kinds of experiments. And in 1928, Kandinsky prepared and implemented the staging of a theatrical composition to a cycle of piano pieces written by Mussorgsky. The premiere of Pictures at an Exhibition was held on April 4, 1928, at the Friedrich Theatre in Dessau, and it was a great success. It was a complex and technically demanding composition, which required detailed instructions from the author. Unfortunately, the sets were not preserved, and no photographs remain. The only things that have survived are sixteen watercolor sketches, which are now held at the Pompidou Center.
In subsequent years, composers and musicians turned to these two works by Kandinsky many times, staging Yellow Sound on musical stages in various countries. Based on Kandinsky's watercolors, the French pianist Mikhail Rudy created a video to accompany his own performance of Mussorgsky's pieces.
