The Yellow Sound bу A. Schnittke in a Dialogue with Experiments of the Postmodern Era

Abstract

The article outlines the historical process of existence of the stage composition The Yellow Sound by V. Kandinsky. Based on the methods of historical and theoretical musicology, the methods of comparative and cultural analysis, the different attitudes towards the problem of staging The Yellow Sound during the author’s lifetime (in the first half of the 20th century) and in the second half of the century – the first quarter of the 21st century are shown. The experimental stage composition was not staged by the author himself, but the worldwide popularity of Kandinsky’s pictorial legacy, the interest in his theatrical and literary legacy, encouraged directors to stage The Yellow Sound on the theater stage, since the idea of the synthesis of arts, which formed the conceptual foundation of Kandinsky’s text, was relevant for many authors of the postmodernist era. The productions that took place were very far from the surviving script by V. Kandinsky, and in different performances the musical component often changed (due to the absence of the original score by the composer F. Hartmann). One example of new music for The Yellow Sound is a piece by A. Schnittke, created taking into account Kandinsky’s script. The artistic merits of the music of this composition contributed to the emergence of a whole series of different new productions of The Yellow Sound using the music of A. Schnittke as a basis. At the same time, all these productions are reinterpretations, since the script of the stage composition is absent from them, but the symbolism of the color scheme, based on the color theory of V. Kandinsky, is preserved.