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INTRODUCTION
Even today, many of
those interested in
the painter
Kandinsky (d. 1944)
are still surprised
that he wrote plays
for the stage. From
the texts of his
theatre pieces, we
can see clearly how
daring and
innovative they
were. Indeed, in the
field of theatre,
this great artist
was far ahead of his
own time—and
he also remains
ahead of our time.
In Kandinsky’s
day, plans for
various productions
of his stage texts
never came to
fruition. From 1914
on, obstacles and
interruptions to the
plans included World
Wars I and II, his
forced emigrations,
and more.
Ultimately—although
he came extremely
close to production
more than
once—none of
his stage texts were
performed during his
lifetime.
Since then, there
have been challenges
even to knowing what
some of the texts
say. For example, it
is a pleasure to see
the earliest, draft
versions of his
stage works, where
Kandinsky wrote the
majority of his
notes by hand, in
Russian and German,
as if for his own
use or a close
colleague’s.
But they are
difficult to
decipher—that
is, the handwriting
of this
“founder of
abstract
painting”
tends toward
abstraction! We
offer glimpses,
though, simply for
their graphic
appeal. Of the play
fragments that
follow, one brief
section is published
here for the first
time, and the rest
published for the
first time in
English
re-translations
achieved
collaboratively by
your co-authors.
These very early
outlines for his
stage experiments
are important to
scholars, of course,
but they also serve
interested readers
as wonderful, brief
introductions to the
tone and flavor of
the works. As a case
in point,
Kandinsky’s
best-known work for
the stage is Yellow Sound.
It is a full length
piece; the only one
of all his theatre
texts that he
published himself,
in its entirety; and
the only one much
published,
translated, and
available online.
And yet, there
continues to be much
interest in the
first, short version
of Yellow Sound, originally called Riesen [Giants],
from 1908/9. That
version is preserved
in Kandinsky’s
archives in Munich,
but only published
in 1998, in Über das Theater, Du théâtre, O teatre.
There, the texts
appear in German,
with translations
into French and
Russian, but not
into English.
Naturally, the original draft of Giants is
considerably shorter
than its
better-known final
version, Yellow Sound.
And like the early
draft versions of
all his stage
pieces, it contains
many abbreviations,
corrections and
deletions critical
for scholarly
inquiry. But your
co-authors have
chosen not to
include these. For
the three fragments
below, our goal has
been to create an
inviting,
English-language
reading experience
that evokes the
extraordinary,
utterly singular
world of
Kandinsky’s
theatre.
*
Kandinsky’s Theatre of Abstraction:
Three Play Fragments
About our
first fragment: We
know that Kandinsky
wrote this short
draft for himself
and for his
composer, Thomas von
Hartmann, with whom
he cooperated very
closely. There are
several published
musical staffs
Kandinsky notated in
German and in
Russian—the
originals preserved
in his Munich and
Paris
archives—on
which instead of
musical notes, each
line is labeled
“Color,”
“Movement,”
“Music,”
and in some cases,
"Voice."
GIANTS (1908/9)
Play Fragment #1
Blue background. Singing (mechanical) from backstage.
A bright green ship with yellow giants. Rocking [“high
shoulders, low shoulders”]; slow movements towards each
other and sideways. Music. The giants stand up, sit down. Red
birds with human faces. Singing of the giants (ppp). In the
ship, music: high notes, later mixed with the singing
backstage.
The stage becomes dark. Singing continues for a long
time.
Against a violet background, a bright green hill with flowers.
From the right come people (light-colored [formless]
clothing, many flowers).
[Singing:]
The flowers of poetry
Are strewn across the world
Gather them into an everlasting wreath
In prison you will be free
In the desert you will not be alone.
At the same time, small indistinct figures walk across the hill, looking straight ahead.The people flee off the hill. Giants whisper together.
Music gradually becomes softer, then gradually becomes shriller.
Later, a bright procession.
Darkness, and a hermit. Music.
Grey sky with a large blackcloud. A bell.
Red—green-yellow—white—black.
Music. Against the blue background, a giant takes the shape of a cross covering the entire stage. Arms up and growing. Light
yellow. Face white and indistinct.
The ending of that Giants text is essentially the ending
Kandinsky used for the final version of his later, full-length Yellow Sound. Note that even though the giant makes the shape
of a “cross,” we shouldn’t overemphasize an association with the
Christian cross. In fact, Kandinsky meant for Yellow Sound to be
one of three related stage plays, the third one ending with a
phoenix-like, blue bird.
*
Here is an early fragment of that third play, later called Black
and White. Kandinsky wrote this first version by hand, in
German, and left it untitled.
BLACK AND WHITE
(1908/9)
Play Fragment #2
I. Movement [of clouds? – ed.]
II. The walking of black and white. Many walking
(rhythmically). Then from the left they freeze mid-stride.
Slowly turn around. Arms hanging, arms stretched out.
Women walking (white) at the back, from left to right. The
same again: standing still. (Sound of a horn, very brief).
Stillness, only movement of the clouds.
Black is growing. Falling asleep. Voice.
III. [Sketch only; no text]
IV. [Sketch, with colors marked:
lemon—yellowish—white—vermillion +
green—greenish—black]
A black rider on a white (dappled) horse. Later wind in the
trees. The clouds disappear.
(Sound of hoofs.) People enter and sit down in profile.
[Sketch] The sky turns white and blue.
Black [sketch]
It becomes dark. The people stand up. They suddenly carry
torches and walk away making bizarre movements.
In the longer final version the ending is similar, except that the
torches are "burning white.” “The people hurry away, looking
back frequently. The trees move again. A ‘green-blue’ bird rises
into the air and disappears above, turning more and more blue,
and finally totally blue."
*
Kandinsky made his very first attempts at writing plays in
1908/9, even before the Giants and Black and White fragments
above: one, based on Anderson’s fairy tale, Garden of Paradise;
another, inspired by the 2nd century Greek romance by Longus,
Daphnis and Chloe. But he moved on from these quickly, and all
of his plays after those dealt symbolically with the creation of the
world, and hinted at a movement toward what he described with
the word “spiritual.” Today, we might get closer to his sense with
a word less fraught, such as “transcendent” or “non-material.”
Our next fragment, Chronicle, is of special interest: a general
outline, or the idea of a stage play. Part art theory, part dialogue,
Kandinsky forges a completely new creation story. That is, his
ambition is to transfer the creation of the world into the realm of
art. To do that, he first gives us science’s version of the beginning
of the world, then the religious version, and then he develops the
structure of the latter into a kind of catechism that leads us to art.
A bit about what you are seeing: this text is in Über das Theater,
in German, French and Russian. There was one English
translation provided for Kandinsky, the 1993 magnum opus of
coauthor, Dr. Jelena Hahl-Koch [now Hahl-Fontaine.] What you
see here is a combination of brief text not published before, and
longer text newly re-translated in tandem by your two authors.
Kandinsky wrote Chronicle very fast and changed things several
times. There are things he had clearly not yet finalized, and the
original text is not always coherent or consistent. In some sense,
that brings us closer to his act of writing it. Although
incomplete—or maybe because it is incomplete--the version here
is enormously evocative, the beginning of something.
CHRONICLE
(1913/14)
Play Fragment #3
[1]
The widely recognized and appealing problem, to investigate
the interior kinship between musical tones and color tones,
captivates the artist of today with new and particular force.
One approaches this inquiry, weighty with consequence, from
two angles: from the the positive sciences—an exterior
approach—and from feelings—an interior approach.
One also tries to make use of the consequences of that not-yet
-clear kinship, in two ways—in thetheoretical sense and in
practical application.
[2]
A stage, on which no limits are imaginable.
On this stage, an action.
Today, called tragedy:
Movement. Sounds. Collision. A big bang. Explosion.
Disappearance. Appearance. No beginning. No end.
A whirlwind of dust—planets spinning at full speed.
On one planet—people.
______
One act of the action, consisting of three pictures:
1. Creation of the body—creation of the world—revelation of
will—
God the Father.
Connection.
2. Formation of the principle of harmony—revelation of
love—Son of God.
3. Insufflation of the Spirit—movement—revelation of
freedom—God the Holy Spirit.
______
Beforehand a questionmark.
Afterwards a questionmark.
On both sides—an immense silence.
______
[3]
All three visible pictures of the one act converging:
the body grows
the interiorconnections are forming
An invisible hand rips open the curtain.
From the infinite sun one can see the first ray—freedom.
______
What is freedom?
Freedom is not the possibility of walking simultaneously to
the right and to the left, but the unlimited possibility of
walking to the right or to the left... with joy.
What is joy?
Joy is the possiblity of choosing the path that has an inner
attraction.
______
What is the path to joy?
The path to joy is the path to knowledge.
[4]
What is knowledge?
Knowledge—experiences of the soul.
What is the way to experiences of the soul?
Art.
______
Thus art reflects and announces the way to knowledge.
Thus the art of today
reflects movement,
prophecies freedom.
______
What is necessary for art to reflect and prophecy?
Limitless freedom.
______
Thus the art of today is showing the first ray of the limitless sun—
freedom.
_________
Art is the prophet
of what is to come.
[5]
This prophet stems from the realm of the whole act.
It also reflects the first two pictures:
the creation of the body—construction
the creation of the harmonious principle—artistic means
So art is a prophetic being which continues to grow
as an independent body and which, through freedom,
serves the spirit.
*
CONCLUSION
The most important and very obvious difference from version to
version of all of Kandinsky’s stage plays is their progression
towards abstraction. This progression is exactly parallel to the
slow development of his painting towards abstraction. For the
stage plays this means: abandoning a plot that can be
“understood”; having the actors move in a stylized or puppet-like
manner, rather than as individual characters; and often reducing
them to mere "bearers of color." Along with the increasing
abstraction of the visual worlds of Kandinsky’s theatre pieces, his
abstraction of language was an especially original device—a
precursor of Dada poetry, and one that he used powerfully in his
own poetry.
We began this article with a fragment from Giants; in the Yellow
Sound it evolved into, we hear a tenor voice cry out in nonsense
syllables, “Kalasimunafakula!” We don’t know what it means, but
we feel we should pay attention.
* * *
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