Visualization of Music as a Means for the Contemporary Composition to Function: Edison Denisov, “Three Pictures by Paul Klee”

Abstract

This publication presents informational
and analytic materials to a class in 7th grade
of children’s music schools with commentaries
and elucidations of the artistic style of
German artist Paul Klee and the personal
perspective of his art works by 20th century
Russian composer. Examination is made
of the questions of visualization as a means
of impact on the perception of a contemporary
classical musical composition. The central
portion of the class material is taken up
by an analysis of Klee’s works (the visual
element) and the analysis of the musical
score of Denisov’s cycle. The musical score
and the illustrations of the artist’s works
are projected on the screen, and the musical
flow is superimposed on the visual depiction.
Thereby, the content of Denisov’s chamber
cycle is comprehended in interconnection
with and through the components of the visual
means of the composition’s functioning.
As the result of the attempt of a synthetic
perception of art, the visual element provides
essential help in providing instruction
at the elementary stage of musical education.
The choice of the composition is stipulated
by the revised content of the 7th grade
textbook for children’s music schools
by Olga Averyanova “Otechestvennaya
muzyka XX veka” [“20th Century Russian
Music”, Moscow, 2014]. The article suggests
a consistent and interdependent examinations
of the parameters of connections between music and painting and their reflection
in the individual, sonorous flow of the musical composition.