imported>Fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four: Undid revision 1296235186 by Morosophic Turd (talk): vol 44 seems correct, see https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/theatre-of-celebrationdisruption-time-and-spacetimespace-in-kandi

2025-06-19T07:31:09Z

Undid revision 1296235186 by Morosophic Turd (talk): vol 44 seems correct, see https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/theatre-of-celebrationdisruption-time-and-spacetimespace-in-kandi

New page

{{Short description|1909 play by Wassily Kandinski}}
{{Infobox play
| name = ''Der Gelbe Klang''<br />''The Yellow Sound''
| genre = Color-tone drama
| writer = [[Wassily Kandinsky]]
| image = Vassily-Kandinsky.jpeg
| caption = Kandinsky in 1913, a year after the experimental theater piece was published
| librettist = Kandinsky
| orig_lang = German
| premiere = {{Start date|1972|05|12|df=y}}
| place = [[Guggenheim Museum]], New York City
}}
'''''The Yellow Sound''''' (in German, ''Der Gelbe Klang'') is an experimental theater piece originated by the Russian artist [[Wassily Kandinsky]]. Created in [[1909 in art|1909]], the work was first published in ''[[The Blue Rider]] Almanac'' in [[1912 in art|1912]].<ref>Richard Drain, ''Twentieth-Century Theatre: A Sourcebook'', London, Routledge, 1995; pp. 251-2.</ref>

''The Yellow Sound'' was the "earliest and most influential"<ref>David F. Kuhns, ''German Expressionist Theatre: The Actor and the Stage'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1997; p. 148.</ref> of four "color-tone dramas" that Kandinsky conceived for the theater between 1909 and 1914; the others were titled ''The Green Sound'', ''Black and White'', and ''Violet''.<ref>Michael Kobialka, "Theatre of Celebration/Disruption: Time and Space/Timespace in Kandinsky's Theatre Experiments," ''Theatre Annual'' Vol. 44 (1989–90), pp. 71-96.</ref> Kandinsky's pieces were part of a larger trend of their era that addressed [[color theory]] and [[synesthesia]] in works that blended multiple art forms and media. Such works — [[Alexander Scriabin|Scriabin's]] ''[[Prometheus: The Poem of Fire|Prometheus]]'' (1910) is arguably among the best known — utilized lighting techniques and other innovations to extend the normal range of artistic expression.<ref>[[Richard Cytowic]], ''The Man Who Tasted Shapes: A Bizarre Medical Mystery Offers Revolutionary Insights into Emotions, Reasoning, and Consciousness'', Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003 {{ISBN|0-262-53255-7}}</ref> Kandinsky had published his own theory on color and synesthesia in his [[Wassily Kandinsky#Concerning the spiritual in art|''Concerning the Spiritual in Art'']] (1911).

Kandinsky never saw ''The Yellow Sound'' performed during his lifetime. He and his ''Blue Rider'' colleagues, including [[Franz Marc]], [[August Macke]], and [[Alfred Kubin]], worked intensively on a planned 1914 [[Munich]] production, but it was cancelled by the outbreak of [[World War I]].<ref>Hajo Düchting, ''Wassily Kandinsky, 1866–1944: A Revolution in Painting'', Cologne, Taschen Books, 2000; p. 53.</ref> (That original production was perhaps intended for Georg Fuchs's ''Künstlertheater'', which had the lighting facilities required by the project.)<ref>Vasilly Kandinsky, ''Complete Writings on Art'', Kenneth C Lindsay and Peter Vergo, eds., Cambridge, MA, Da Capo Press, 1994; p. 231.</ref> Two subsequent German productions, one at the [[Bauhaus]], also failed to materialize.

The work had its belated world premiere on 12 May 1972 at the Guggenheim Museum and has since been staged (in various levels of authenticity and completeness) at the Theatre des Champs-Élysées, Paris (4 March 1976) and on 9 February 1982, at the Marymount Manhattan Theatre in New York City.<ref>"Theater: Staging a Kandinsky Dream," ''The New York Times'', 7 February 1982, "http://theater.nytimes.com/mem/theater/treview.html?res=9C0DE4DB1038F934A35751C0A964948260".</ref> There has also been productions at the [[Alte Oper]], Frankfurt am Main (7–8 September 1982) the Theatre im National, Bern Switzerland (12–15 February 1987) and the NIA Centre, [[Manchester]] on 21 March 1992. Productions of ''The Yellow Sound'' have been mounted with three musical scores in three countries. The American production employed a rearrangement based on ideas from the lost original score (composed by [[Thomas de Hartmann]]) by [[Gunther Schuller]], while a French production used a score by [[Anton Webern]], and a Russian production one by [[Alfred Schnittke]].<ref>Konrad Boehmer, ''Schönberg and Kandinsky: An Historic Encounter'', London, Taylor & Francis, 1998; p. 97.</ref> The show was remounted with puppets in New York City in November, 2010, by Target Margin Theatre Co. at [[The Brick Theater]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.playbill.com/news/article/143776-Target-Margin-Theater-Will-Examine-Its-Origins-at-The-Brick-in-November |title=Target Margin Theater Will Examine Its Origins at The Brick in November - Playbill.com |website=www.playbill.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101011085041/http://www.playbill.com/news/article/143776-Target-Margin-Theater-Will-Examine-Its-Origins-at-The-Brick-in-November |archive-date=2010-10-11}} </ref> On 10 April 2011 ''The Yellow Sound'' has been performed in [[Lugano]] (Palazzo dei Congressi) with the original score composed by [[Carlo Ciceri]].<ref>[[Jean Soldini]], ''«Eccomi!». L’agire protagonista in Kandinskij'', Lugano, University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland, 2011.</ref> November 2011 also saw a full production of the stage composition with fragments of original score performed at Tate Modern, London, UK. This was commissioned as part of the Blaue Reiter Centenary Celebrations.<ref>Geraint D'Arcy, 'The Yellow Sound An unstageable composition? Technology, modernism and spaces that should-not-be' ''Body, Space, Technology'' vol. 11.2, 2011. http://people.brunel.ac.uk/bst/vol1102/geraintdarcy/home.html</ref><ref>Geraint D'Arcy & Richard J. Hand 'Open Your Eyes/Shut Your Eyes: Staging Kandinsky's The Yellow Sound at Tate Modern', ''Performance Research'', 17:5, 2011, 56-60, DOI: 10.1080/13528165.2012.728441</ref>

''The Yellow Sound'' is a one-act opera without dialogue or conventional plot, divided into six "pictures." A child in white and an adult performer in black represent life and death; other figures are costumed in single colors, including five "intensely yellow giants (as large as possible)" and "vague red creatures, ''somewhat'' suggesting birds...."

Drawing on elements of [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolism]] and [[Expressionism]] (while and anticipating [[Surrealism]]), Kandinsky's work had a strong influence on German theater innovator [[Lothar Schreyer]], who "built a whole theory of performance on the expressive process first suggested in ''The Yellow Sound''."<ref>Kuhns, p. 150.</ref>

==References==

{{reflist}}

{{Wassily Kandinsky}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yellow Sound}}
[[Category:20th-century classical music]]
[[Category:Visual music]]
[[Category:Expressionist plays]]
[[Category:Russian plays]]
[[Category:1912 plays]]
[[Category:Wassily Kandinsky]]

The Yellow Sound - Revision history

imported>Fifteen thousand two hundred twenty four: Undid revision 1296235186 by Morosophic Turd (talk): vol 44 seems correct, see https://experts.umn.edu/en/publications/theatre-of-celebrationdisruption-time-and-spacetimespace-in-kandi