The final version of La musica shows a pianist performing in a state of rapturous enthusiasm, as it can be understood in its etymological connotation of possession. The features of the pianist’s face, moved by excitement, can barely be distinguished. The hands are represented in a mad, virtuosic dash along an infinite keyboard.
Like other canvases by Russolo, the painting has an almost hypnotic character, evoked in this case by the series of concentric circles that gradually shade from palest to darkest blue and radiate from a point behind the pianist, who remains the painting’s center of gravity.7 Beyond the concentric circles, two other elements frame the figure and underline its central position. A wave of blue rises from the instrument to spread into the air; and, like the skulls of the Autoritratto con teschi, a great number of red-, yellow-, and green-colored masks converge at great speed around the pianist, leaving luminous blurs of color behind them.
In portraying the movement of the hands, arms, and face, and above all the blurs produced by the apparent motion of the masks, Russolo used the technique of optical frame-based breakdown of movement, similar to that which Balla adopted in his paintings of the following year, and which can also be found, though produced with different means, in the photodynamic compositions of Anton Giulio Bragaglia. With Boccioni’s Città che sale (1910–11), Carrà’s Le nuotatrici (1910–12), and Funerali dell’anarchico Galli (1911), Russolo’s La musica is one of the first futurist paintings in which the illusion of matter in movement is shown through blurs of residual images.8
For these reasons, I believe that La musica was intended not merely as a self-portrait but as a documentation of a direct experience. But what experience?
A SUMMARY OF CRITICAL JUDGMENT
Interpretations of La musica tend to follow similar paths. Zanovello cited the first public reviews of the painting, which indicate that the work generated substantial interest in the artistic community. Filippo Quaglia wrote in the Avanti! issue of June 11, 1911: “With the painting La musica, Russolo achieved clamorous success; he knew how to represent the keys, the sounds, the chords, the melodic line that writhes over and through all the keys. But these words of mine cannot give an idea of the painting; it is necessary to see it to take possession of the vision of art.”9
Other evidence from the time comes from Attilio Teglio in Il Giornale (Bergamo) of July 4, 1911:
A spectral musician, to whom the artist gave the semblance of Beethoven, is seated at the piano; his hands multiply and draw music from the keyboard, guided by inspiration. In the air winds a long flexible blue ribbon: it is the wave of melody that develops and widens on high its spirals to the infinite. A nimbus of concentric circles denotes the vibrations of the sonic wave. The notes, the sounds, the chords are rendered by masks with long colored blurs and each has a special face of its own. They sing in loud and soft voices, laugh and smile, weep and moan, sometimes shout, each bringing its contribution to that complex of feelings from which will result a symphonic whole. This canvas rich with bright, efficacious, suggestive colors, is accessible to anyone occupied with music even if he is not initiated in futurism.10
The following review was essentially a paraphrase of Russolo’s critical note on the painting, which similarly analyzed the work within a time and space grid:
With this painting the author wanted to make a kind of pictorial translation of the melodic, polyphonic, coloristic impressions that constitute the complex of musical emotion. On a blue sky progressively shaded several times, so as to render the spatial widening of the sonic wave, a ghostly musician, agitated by the frenzy of inspiration, draws from a vast keyboard a witches’ swarm of sounds, rhythms, and chords: the development of the melodic line through time is translated pictorially in that deep blue band that winds and spreads through space, dominating and enveloping the whole painting.
Like unexpected meteors that mark the blur of their route in the blue space, numerous serene, cheerful, or grotesque masks group, intertwine, and overlap to form harmonic or complementary chords of bright colorations, thus translating the indefinite feelings belonging to music into defined human expressions.
These masks variously grouped form around them chords of pictorial colorations, reflections and resonances of chords, and timbres and musical colorations.11
One reaction came from no less a personage than Giacomo Puccini, who admired the painting in 1919 at the ex–Caffè Cova exhibit and expressed admiration for Russolo’s mastery in “translating in so efficacious a way sounds and timbres into lines and colors.”12
DECONSTRUCTING LA MUSICA
Sensation is the material garment of the spirit and now it appears to our clairvoyant eyes. And with this the artist feels himself in everything. Creating he does not look, does not observe, does not measure; he feels, and the sensations that envelop him dictate to him the lines and colors that will arouse the emotions that caused him to act.
—Umberto Boccioni, La pittura futurista: Conferenza tenuta a Roma nel 1911
The critics cited above considered Russolo’s large oil painting to be a successful attempt at portraying music with visual means. Yet the constituent elements of the painting can be interpreted at a deep level: the concentric circles symbolize the expansion of the sonic wave in space; the deep blue band shows the development of the melodic line in time; and the masks represent the various states of mind that music can engender. However, this level of analysis is unsatisfactory. Something in the painting—perhaps the type of images reproduced in it, perhaps their restless motion, perhaps the general atmosphere evoked by the painting, both monstrous and enchanting—indicates that this interpretation is too reductive.
On the basis of critical and interpretive readings, I believe that the painting relates to theosophy—not simply in general, synesthetic terms but specifically to theosophical principles in the volume Thought-forms that I have already observed reflected in other works of Russolo, beginning with the etching and aquatint Maschere of 1908.
Calvesi has noted that the visual representation of sound waves in La musica, which can already be distinguished in the sketch of the painting, recalls expressive techniques adopted by Munch in The Scream (1885) and by Jan Sluijters in Bal tabarin (1907).13 The concentric circles reminded Calvesi of Romani’s work, and he commented on the mysticism of the wheel as a planet-star-sun, all symbols of pantheistic, universal energy.14 Of great interest, if perhaps a little rash, is Martin’s idea that the many-armed pianist represents “Siva Nataraja, the creator and lord of the cosmic dance in the Hindu pantheon.”15
Long before Calvesi, Carrà maintained that Russolo in La musica evoked “the mediumistic masks of the spirits of the great composers.” This interpretation was later echoed by Lista, who wrote that the masks represent “the spirits of the great composers of the past that are embodied through their ‘mediumistic masks.’ ”16
Russolo’s interpretation of his painting shows similarities with the theories that Ginna and Corra were working out in those years under the openly acknowledged influence of theosophy. Further research is needed to map and date the relationships Russolo had with the Corradinis, but for the purpose of the present analysis it is useful to compare Russolo’s interpretation with the ideas that the two brothers presented in their Arte dell’avvenire of 1910.
Ginna and Corra’s goal in this pamphlet was to create a dialogue between painting and music, and even to adopt a musical lexicon to describe elements of their pictorial language (chord, motif). Russolo’s La musica seems to want to actualize these goals. That Ginna’s and Corra’s position is indebted to the theories of Besant and Leadbeater is evident from their expressed desire to translate a “system of passions [. . .] into a system of images” and in their aspiration to base their aesthetic on synesthetic laws that would allow them to “re-tie” the arts, as called for in Mazzini’s epigraph to the first edition of their pamphlet.17
Russolo’s fascination with and adoption of these systems is clear. However, if Buzzi is correct in claiming that
La musica had a long gestation, then Ginna’s and Corra’s influence on this work suddenly seems less likely. Granted, the principles of Arte dell’avvenire had been put into practice for the first time in Ginna’s Accordo cromatico of 1909, which suggests that the counts Ginanni Corradini had initiated their esoteric readings by that year. But if Ginna and Corra, living in the isolation of the countryside of Ravenna, could furnish themselves “with spiritualist and occultist books” (see chapter 2), it is even more likely that Russolo, living in one of the most culturally dynamic cities in Italy, had access to those same esoteric texts, and probably as early as 1908. That would explain the provenance of the materializations in Maschere.18
I am convinced, therefore, that the brothers Corradini and Russolo proceeded on parallel courses in their studies and could not have influenced one another until after 1910, the year when Marinetti transmitted the ideas of the Corradinis to Boccioni, Carrà, and Russolo (and vice versa). Moreover, that same year Ginna sent the first edition of Arte dell’avvenire to the Milanese futurists.19 By that time, however, Russolo was already involved with works like the Autoritratto (con doppio eterico).
Regardless of primacy, La musica recalls theosophical doctrines with such clarity as to make it unthinkable that Russolo could have painted the work without knowing about theosophy. The ideas of Besant and Leadbeater emerge forcefully from the canvas. Indeed, the painting is structured according to criteria presented in Thought-forms, in particular the section of the book that describes the forms produced by music.20
Besant and Leadbeater claimed that every time a composer writes music, his states of mind produce luminous projections in the aura around him; they named these projections thought-forms. In the activity of interpretation, the player also expresses his own states of mind, which produce other thought-forms. Moreover, the music produces sound-forms, also referred to as “forms built by music” that, while similar to them, are not technically thought-forms and therefore not projected onto the aura as thought-forms are; instead they are projected onto the sky above the performance venue.21 Thought-forms are, finally, produced by the audience as a spontaneous reaction to both the music and the forms. To complicate matters yet further, the thought-forms of the musician and audience and the sound-forms produced by the music itself can occur simultaneously, even if the thought-forms do not have the power to interfere with the much more voluminous sound-forms.
Besant and Leadbeater also claimed that, just as thought-forms correspond to thoughts, all features of each sound-form correspond to the musical element that generated that form. For every musical characteristic (harmony, melody, rhythmical articulation, form, timbre, etc.) there exist a corresponding form and color that render that characteristic with extraordinary precision.
The dimensions of the sound-form produced and its permanence in the air vary according to the music, dynamics, timbre, quality of musical execution, and other parameters. The greater the “spiritual” weight of the sound-form, the sharper, brighter, and more voluminous the images. Moreover, the sound-forms radiate vibrations in every direction for the entire duration of their existence (often more than two hours). The contact between these vibrations and the aura of the particular individual they reach will condition that individual’s mood. In this way, the musician can influence hundreds of listeners without having a relationship with them on the physical plane.
FIGURE 18. Annie Besant and Charles W. Leadbeater, plate W, “Wagner: Overture to Meistersingers [sic]” from Thought-forms (1901). Reproduced by permission of The Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar, Chennai 600 020. India. © The Theosophical Publishing House. www.ts-adyar.org & www.adyarbooks.com.
Thought-forms presents earlier artworks that are conceptually similar to La musica in three important plates titled Mendelssohn, Gounod, and Wagner (fig. 18). In these artworks, the music of the three composers, executed in the same church on the same organ, generates three different sound-forms that project themselves onto the sky above.22 The plates show three detailed examples of sound-forms that can be observed by clairvoyant subjects “who have eyes to see.”23
Leadbeater expanded the sound-forms section of Thought-forms in an essay dedicated entirely to the subject, which became a chapter in his 1913 volume The Hidden Side of Things. Even more than on the book Thought-forms, Russolo drew heavily on the expanded essay, not only for a series of key concepts but also for a rhetorical structure that he subsequently applied to the formulation of his art of noises. Leadbetter’s essay opens with a “scientifically” argued explanation of sound-forms as forms obtained by the higher harmonics of sound-producing light waves: “There are many people who realise that sound always generates colour—that every note which is played or sung has overtones which produce the effect of the light when seen by an eye even slightly clairvoyant.”24
La musica represents, to quote Leadbeater, “the hidden side of the performance of a piece of music.”25 If one were to consider the opinions of Carrà (and Lista), according to whom Russolo’s masks are mediumistic—and therefore ideoplastic—materializations, and overlap those opinions with the theosophical references on which the painting is evidently based, a more complex reading of La musica emerges.
On a first hermeneutic level, the painting represents the act of producing music, complete with the implicit motoric skills and physical effort of execution. According to current interpretations, the concentric circles symbolize the spread of the sonic wave, the blue band the development of the melodic line, and the masks the various states of mind that the music evokes. There is more here, though, than meets the eye: the painting also illustrates a process in which the performer is the medium between spirits and the mechanical means that produced the physical sound—the keyboard. In this process, the spirits that fluctuate on the astral plane dictate the production and improvisation of music to the mechanical means of music production by way of the performer, who is in a state of trance. Through the medium, the psychic energies of the conjured spirits ideoplastically mold thought-forms in the shape of masks and faces, re-creating various and also complementary states of mind: a complete range of emotions, and a universe of spiritualistic expressions, to represent which Russolo in La musica references Romani’s aesthetics.26
La musica celebrates the performance of music as a form of channeling in which the synchronic, discordant choral sum of complementary spiritualistic thought-forms is fused in musical, enharmonic unity by the performer-medium, who reconciles the opposites by means of their common origin (that is, by their congenital complementarism), as the thought-forms are all evoked or generated by the mind of the performer.27 Thus music as acoustic phenomenon, as wave, once finally spiritualized, is represented by the sound-form of the sinuous blue band.28
Masks
The 1911 ink-on-paper version of La musica does not contain the masks of the 1912 final version apart from their blurs; the first oil version, at least as far as one can tell from Boccioni’s vignette, shows hints of materializations but not the blurs. In the 1912 final version, masks converge and condense at great speed, producing luminous blurs of residual images. The masks are not sound-forms but thought-forms generated by the spirits through the pianist, who is both interpreter and medium. The masks, which show different and even conflicting expressions, must be understood as thought-forms that visualize or materialize the various states of mind induced in a performer-medium by the spirits that he has evoked. The masks are therefore the ideoplastic, ectoplasmic product of the action of the spirits conjured up by the medium, perhaps even the spirits of the great composers of the past embodied through their “mediumistic masks.”29 They are, in effect, ideoplastic materializations, or, better yet, representations thereof.
The above process is also theosophical. In Thought-forms, Leadbeater explained that the spirits that reside in the astral plane have the energy to change the course of thought-forms that already exist, and to make them move.30 Through the possessed medium, conjured spirits can not only create colors and ab
stract images but also materialize, animate, and control these images.
Concentric Circles
In this interpretation, the concentric circles of light of decreasing luminosity, which depict the sonic wave’s outward radiations, also represent the aura (aureole) surrounding the performer-medium, and they become stronger the closer that aura is to his body. The aura, easily distinguishable from the bands of the sonic wave, was already present in the 1911 ink-on-paper version of La musica. Such a portrayal of magic by means of concentric circles and irradiations thereafter became a leitmotif in Russolo, as can be seen in Notturno + scintille di rivolta (1910–11), Linee-forza della folgore and Compenetrazione di case + luce + cielo (1912), and Solidità della nebbia (1912–13).
In his unpublished manuscript “Avviamento alla magia (Giuliano Kremerz [sic]),” Russolo described the process of irradiation as a “crown of light [. . .] to the summit of the head [. . .] that increasingly irradiates in circles [. . .] as sound waves [. . . through] chains of figures.”31 The spiritualization of the figure, notable in Russolo’s other paintings as well and often represented by a visible aura surrounding the bodies, is noteworthy. According to theosophical texts, the aura is composed of “spiritual bodies,” and among the aura’s various functions is that of acting as a screen on which thought-forms, produced by the various states of mind, can be projected. This also seems to be the function of the concentric circles in La musica.
The energies of the spirits that induce a state of trance in the performer-medium through him produce states of mind expressed in corresponding colors and forms: masks as thought-forms.32 Interestingly, the masks have the same dimensions as the face of the interpreter-medium. He no longer has a single expression; now his expressions are as numerous as those generated by the spirits guiding him.
Luigi Russolo, Futurist Page 13