Research Center for Music Iconography, The Graduate Center, City University of New

York

Polyphony in Image and Sound

Author(s): Monika Fink
Source: Music in Art , Spring–Fall 2017, Vol. 42, No. 1-2 (Spring–Fall 2017), pp. 367-374
Published by: Research Center for Music Iconography, The Graduate Center, City
University of New York

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/90019515

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide
range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and
facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
https://about.jstor.org/terms

Research Center for Music Iconography, The Graduate Center, City University of New York is
collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Music in Art

This content downloaded from

82.49.44.75 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:32:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Music in Art XLII/1–2 (2017)

POLYPHONY IN IMAGE AND SOUND

MONIKA FINK

Institut für Musikwissenschaft, Universität Innsbruck

PAUL KLEE AND MUSIC. Paul Klee played a central role among the numerous early–twentieth-century
artists inspired by musical structures and composition techniques as far as their efforts to advance abstract
art are concerned. Klee wrote in his diary: “Nur zur Musik habe ich stets gut gestanden.”1 In his works, Klee
tried to adopt compositional methods from music and to create color and design based on musical patterns.2
He also intended to develop musical aesthetics in visual arts: “In der abstrakten Synchronität bildnerischer
und musikalischer Essenzen (liegt) ... das Innovative in Klees Kreativität, nämlich schöpferische Impulse zu
entfalten, die über den Horizont bildästhetisch autonomer Ambitionen bewusst hinausweisen.”3 Especially
during the early period of his teaching activity at the Bauhaus at the end of the year 1921, he systematically
dealt with the potential of structural relations between the visual arts and music.4 His understanding of the
parallels between music and visual arts made him realize that both arts are temporal:5 “die Klangwelt (kann)
eine Synthese eingehen ... mit der Erscheinungswelt”.6 The proponents of abstract pictorial design regarded
the abstract art of music—with its specific design patterns that could be transferred to visual design—as a
pictorial analogy.
The musical implications of this approach were obvious to Klee: He compared the creation of a painting
with the creation of a musical composition, in which one idea follows the other. The title is either totally omit-
ted in his paintings or determined after they have been completed.7
During his Bauhaus years Klee, together with Wassily Kandinsky, emphasized the demand for a manda-
tory set of rules guided by the laws of musical composition. Klee’s notes from his lectures concerning these
issues were published under the title Das bildnerische Denken.
For visual artists, abstract music with its formal genres offered not only a source of inspiration for picture
titles and related vocabulary but also a means of systematization previously lacking in visual arts. At least
for Klee, the need for a classification of paintings persisted, although the transition to anti-representationa-
lism had rendered the hierarchy of classical genre obsolete once and for all. Applying the criterion of compo-
sition, as it was the case in music, was the logical solution, since the composition replaced the object.8
When it came to both his own musical activities as a violin player and his studies of art theory Klee favor-
ed eighteenth-century music—especially W.A. Mozart and J.S. Bach. He regarded music coming after Mozart
to be in a decline: “Als räumlich verstandene Polyphonie (ist) seither der finalen Bewegung gewichen. So
steht uns ein Quintett wie in Don Giovanni näher als die epische Bewegung im Tristan (...). Mozart und Bach
sind somit moderner als das neunzehnte Jahrhundert”.9
Paul Klee was not alone with his reverence for the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his endeavor to
use its structural potential for visual composition methods, as the following quotation by František Kupka
shows: “Ich tappe noch immer im Dunkeln, aber ich glaube, dass ich etwas finden kann zwischen Sehen und

© 2017 Research Center for Music Iconography CUNY 367

This content downloaded from

82.49.44.75 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:32:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Monika Fink, Polyphony in Image and Sound: Paul Klee and Music

Hören und eine Fuge mit Farben wie Bach sie mit seiner Musik erschaffen kann”.10 For Kupka this was not
about the musical structure of a fugue per se but about the concept of time and space and related connota-
tions.11 The František Kupka quotation underlines the significance which J.S. Bach’s compositional techniques
had for many artists in the early twentieth century. Bach’s music is the epitome of abstract, immaterial, quasi-
neutral, and also timeless art, setting a pattern for other arts, especially abstract painting.
Aus blassen Harmonien der Farbe steigen Linien empor, Prismen schieben sich hoch, wachsen uns
entgegen, springen zurück, brechen Stufen in den unendlichen Raum, führen nach oben und in die
Tiefe, verbreitern, vervielfältigen sich, sammeln sich zu Akkorden, werden vom Rhythmus beschwingt
und tanzen nun auf in der absoluten Musik des Raumes. Man erlebt diese transzendente Dynamik
nicht anders als die wirklichkeitsferne Kontrapunktik Bachscher Fugen.12
Ensuing from Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, Paul Klee focused on the terms “rhythm”, “variation”, and
“polyphony”.13 Especially the formal principle of the fugue was Paul Klee’s starting point for visual equiva-
lence, as it was for many other artists of his day.
Paul Klee defined the term “pictorial polyphony” in his paper “Schöpferische Konfession”, written
between 1917 and 1919, as “Wiederaufbau zum Ganzen auf mehreren Seiten zugleich”.14 His statements are
even more precise in his paper “Das bildnerische Denken”, in which he states the following concerning poly-
phony in music and its representation in visual arts:
Es gibt doch in der Musik eine Polyphonie. Der Versuch einer Übertragung dieser Wesenheit ins Bild-
nerische wäre an sich noch nichts Besonderes. Aber bei der Musik durch die Besonderheit polyphoner
Kunstwerke Erkenntnisse schöpfen, in diese kosmische Sphäre tief eindringen, um als gewandelter
Kunstbetrachter daraus hervorzugehen und dann im Bild diesen Dingen nachzuwarten, das ist schon
besser. Denn die Gleichzeitigkeit mehrerer selbständiger Themen ist eine Sache, die nicht nur in der
Musik sein kann, wie alle typischen Dinge nicht nur an einem Ort gelten, sondern irgendwo und über-
all verwurzelt sind, organisch verankert.15
Contrapuntal techniques like imitation, mirroring and inversion respectively are per se independent of
the medium and can be applied to both tonal and visual media. Paul Klee held that polyphony in painting
was superior to polyphony in music for the following reason: “Das Zeitliche [ist] hier mehr ein Räumliches“
and “der Begriff der Gleichzeitigkeit [tritt] in ihr reicher hervor.”16 His paintings Revolution des Viadukts
(1937), Dreitakte im Geviert (1930) or Rhythmisches (1930), depict the projection of mutual spatiality onto the
level of mutual temporality. His paintings display four and six layers respectively in black, grey, and white,
always in the same order and number. Their horizontal, vertical, and diagonal arrangement creates a “poly-
rhythm”, which represents the maximum infiltration of artistic and musical formal principles.17
Paul Klee occupied himself with the question of transferring a linear, temporal progression into visual
arts. Polyphony was for him an artistic creation involving the study of the space and time, but he regarded
the visual polyphony as a multi-dimensional occurrence in imagined space. He used a superposition of
shapes varying in color and intensity or with swirling lines comparable to a melody and its accompaniment.
Polyphony became a central aspect of Paul Klee’s theoretical studies. Picture titles like Fuge in Rot, Poly-
phon gefasstes Weiss, Polyphonie or Ad Parnassum as well as the graphic transformation of parts from Bach’s
works are proof of the parallelism of thought.18 In Polyphon gefasstes Weiss (1930), for instance, Klee arranged
layers of transparent watercolors around a blank, white center, with the layers increasing in density towards
the edges. Polyphonie (1932) depicts a checkered color background with dense, contrasting spots of color.
Thanks to this method and by analogy with contrapuntal techniques the individuality of musical parts is
preserved. As Eidenbenz puts it: “Die Polyphonie zwischen Untergrund und Atmosphäre ... [ist] so locker
wie möglich zu halten.19 The technique of putting colored dots on a background and in contrast to the overall
pattern may well be compared to the Bach transcriptions by Anton von Webern, which were created contem-
poraneously yet independent of Paul Klee.20
Paintings like Polyphonie and Ad Parnassum21 (both created in 1932) depict a structural togetherness of
chatoyant shapes. Multiple layers appear simultaneous in a musical sense. These compositional principles
are also graphically depicted in Hauptweg und Nebenwege (1929). The way in which Klee seems to divide the
image space according to strict mathematical principles is reminiscent of a musical score.

368

This content downloaded from

82.49.44.75 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:32:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Music in Art XLII/1–2 (2017)

MUSIC INSPIRED BY PAUL KLEE. Paul Klee ranks—together with Francisco de Goya and Pablo Picasso
—among those visual artists whose works are most often chosen by composers as a source of inspiration. Klee’s
multifarious imagery offers a variety of connecting factors. Interestingly enough his polyphonous paintings
attract less attention regarding this matter than his popular Zwitschermaschine.22 In this context, however, we
only deal with compositions based on polyphonous paintings, first as an outline, then with an in-detail analysis
of the musical contemplation of Fuge in Rot, and with a special emphasis on the most recent composition.
A comparison between visual polyphony and musical polyphony, as is the case in many compositions
inspired by Paul Klee, immediately suggests itself. This does not refer to a direct translation between the two
media, which would have been impossible anyway, but to the method of developing musical and visual
composition according to the same construction principle.
As Klee himself stated, his Drei Subjekte polyphon depicts three individual rhythms of movement merging
in a polyphonous way.23 The Argentine composer Roberto García Morillo (1911–2003) chooses a similar
approach in the first movement of the Divertimento sobre temas de Paul Klee op. 37a (1967), a wind quintet with
the title Tres sujetos polifónicos, where he developed three brief motifs in a contrapuntal way.
The pictorial polyphony of Klee’s Unten und oben (1932), a painting dominated by synchronicity and
complementation, also offers distinct, musical starting points. The Swiss composer of Hungarian birth Sándor
Veress (1907–1992) set this painting to music in the fourth movement of his fantasy for two pianos and string
orchestra, with the title Hommage à Paul Klee (1951). In Klee’s Unten und oben image and sound mimic
movement in a downright contrapuntal Baroque style. Veress’s piece with its contrapuntal artifice sounds
like a time-displaced Bach, as the critic Christoph Schlüren has noticed.24 A concertizing, six-part style in the
fashion of Bach’s inventions highlights complementation and imitation.
In context with the term polyphony one also has to consider imitation and variation. The block-like color
design—whose continuous imitation and variation characterizes Klee’s paintings Statisch-dynamische Steiger-
ung, Abstrakte Farbharmonie, and Alter Klang—is retained and defined by tonal chromaticity in the respective
musical renderings by Unsuk Chin,25 Roberto García Morillo,26 Gunther Schuller,27 and Sandor Veress.28 Na-
turally, comparing color gradation with the corresponding acoustic color is a rather simple analogy— espe-
cially since acoustic color is a truly musical category, which has no parallel in other arts.
Just like the color squares are centered in the middle of the paintings Alter Klang and Statisch-dynamische
Steigerung, the musical scores of the compositions by Veress and Chin are densest in their central parts. A
musical interpretation of the picture’s title Alter Klang is suggested by the use of Gregorian melodies. The Israeli
composer Tzvi Avni, for instance, begins his Benedictus inspired by Klee’s Alter Klang, with a seemingly archaic
choral movement.29By contrast, the Japanese composer Takashi Kako (b.1947) designed an almost impressionistic
sonic image for his piano cycle Klee (1986), in which Alter Klang is the final movement (no. 12).
In his paintings Zeichen in Gelb and Grün in Grün Klee combined color shapes with linear elements. Klee
had pointed out analogies between lines and melodies as early as during his Bauhaus years: “[So wie sich]
in der Musik eine Melodie (sich) vielstimmig entfaltet, so (entwickelt) sich im Bildnerischen die ‘freie Linie‘
im Zusammenspiel mit ‘convergierenden’ oder ‘divergierenden’ Linien”.30 Accordingly, Veress’s musical
renderings of these pictures are characterized by a continuous alternation of chordal sound and linearity.31
Hellmuth Christian Wolff was inspired by Klang der südlichen Flora in the third movement of his Paul Klee
Suite op. 75 (1973). This painting consists of varicolored squares of the same size, and Wolff represented each
square, read from left to right and from top to bottom, by a different tone and sound.32
Klee’s painting Fuge in Rot (1921) is perhaps the most famous fugue ever painted,33 and for a long time
has been regarded as the epitome of a pictorial connection between vision and sound. Like many other paint-
ings by Paul Klee, Fuge in Rot carries the relation to music already in its title,34 and many art historians in-
cluding Klee’s friend Will Grohmann, interpreted this in the literal sense as a “pictorial fugue”: “In den vier
Hauptformen (Krug, Niere, Kreis und Rechteck) könnte man Thema, Antwort, Thema in der dritten und
Antwort in der vierten Stimme sehen. Die wechselnde Tonart läge in dem wechselnden Formcharakter, das
Fortschreiten des Themas in der Entwicklung der Farbe (Gelbrosa–Rosa–Violett). Eine gesetzmäßige Farb-
abstufung lebt sich in gesetzmäßig aufeinander bezogenen Formen aus.”35 The musical comparisons were

369

This content downloaded from

82.49.44.75 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:32:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Monika Fink, Polyphony in Image and Sound: Paul Klee and Music

sometimes even more specific. Richard Verdi identified the curved and angular elements as theme and coun-
ter-theme: “Das Thema wird in Krugformen, Kreisen und punktierten Ovalen entwickelt, das Gegenthema
in Quadraten, Rechtecken und Dreiecken. Motive werden in Umkehrung (Dreieck) gezeigt, Krebs (Ovale
rechts oben und unten) und doppeltem Kontrapunkt (Quadrate und Krüge links und rechts der Bildmitte).
Zonen, in denen die Kurvenformen nicht auftreten, sind der Entwicklung und Ausbreitung von Motiven aus
dem Gegenthema überlassen.”36
The art historian Friedrich Teja Bach offers a similar analysis of the painting, interpreting its single ele-
ments as the pictorial rendering of construction principles of the fugue.37 It is beyond doubt that Paul Klee
had no such thing in mind. It is not the structure of the fugue to be visualized but the idea of a pictorial canon
with—as Pierre Boulez put it—“Echofiguren, akustischen Echos gleich”.38 A musical design approach that
supplies synchronicity, mirroring, and variation for a pictorial representation can express the temporal
dimension of the pictorial design. This does not only show in the arrangement of motifs but also in color.
Klee designed quantifiable, distinctly structured intensity gradation and a comprehensive color scheme. Both
the arrangement of shapes and the color design express the temporal dimension by analogy with music that
Klee attributed to the perception of this intensity configuration.39
This painting from 1921 inspired four composers. Chronologically first come Roberto García Morillo with
his wind quintet Divertimento sobre temas de Paul Klee op. 37a (1967), in which Fuga en rojo concludes the cycle:
His piece has the following movements: (1) Tres sujetos polifónicos; (2) Juego asirio; (3) Cuadrado mágico;
(4) El difundo timbalero Knaueros; (5) Pastoral; (6) Figura del teatro oriental; (7) Retrato de una persona
complicada; (8) Máquina gorjeadora; (9) Trio abstracto; (10) El ángel de la estrella; (11) El difundo pianista;
(12) El orden del Ut superior; (13) Griego y bárbados; (14) Uno que entiende; (15) El difunto arpista; (16) Ten-
sión estática-dinámica; (17) Camello en un ritmo de árboles; (18) Danza cronométrica; (19) Armonia abstracta
de colores; (20) Golpes de arco heróicos; and (21) Fuga en rojo.
In 1973 Hellmuth Christian Wolff (1906–1988) composed his orchestral Paul Klee Suite op. 75, with the
following movements:40 (1) Heroische Bogenstriche; (2) Obertöne; (3) Klang der südlichen Flora; (4) Die
Zwitschermaschine; (5) Fuge in Rot; and (6) Paukenspieler und Todesengel.
The polyphony defined as synchronicity in space by Klee is determinative for all musical conceptions
of the respective compositions.41 Both the compositions by Roberto García Morillo, who always pursued the
connection between the arts,42 and by Hellmuth Christian Wolff are based on the principle of imitation [example
1]. Several musical motifs appear—just like the visual motifs in the painting—in a direct sequence. The number
of musical motifs corresponds with the number of visual motifs. Mirroring and inversion are retained as well.
In the year 2000 Tzvi Avni wrote his Apropos Klee for mixed choir, piano, clarinet, bass clarinet, which
has the following movements: (1) Benedictus; (2) Fuge in Rot; (3) Insula Dulcamara; and (4) Die Zwitscher-
maschine. Avni, born as Hermann Jakob Steinke in Saarbrücken in 1927, is a doyen of today’s Israeli composers’
scene. For a long time he was indecisive whether to pursue a career as a painter or as a musician, and at one
point wrote about compositions inspired by paintings: “Zeitlebens beschäftigte mich die Beziehung zwischen
Bildender Kunst und Musik, und im Laufe der Jahre wurde mein Wunsch immer stärker, mit meinen Kompo-
sitionen den Spuren der Maler und Gemälde zu folgen, die mich besonders beeindruckt haben, und vielleicht
sogar Musik zu komponieren, die sich selbst als ein musikalisches Gemälde versteht.”43 Avni, who also loves
to work with self-invented modi, has the choir conveying the central statement in Apropos Klee, joined by clarinet,
percussion, and piano. Fuge in Rot begins with instrumental fugato passages. Later on the choir comes in with
a recitation resembling a fugal exposition that turns into singing; the composer wrote the lyrics himself.
The latest addition to the musical renderings of Fuge in Rot is Ad Parnassum (2005) by Iris Szeghy (b.1956),
a Slovak-born composer now living in Switzerland, whose main concern is the depiction of the longing for
both monologue and dialogue.44 The dialogue quality manifests itself in the references to other arts and in
the reference to miscellaneous styles and traditions. Szeghy chooses literature by Michelangelo, Shakespeare,
Paul Celan, Klaus Merz or Ingeborg Bachmann and pieces of art by Paul Klee, Vladimir Mironenko or Auguste
Rodin. In this context I would like to mention also Szeghy’s Musica folclorica referring to Béla Bartók and her
Bolero-Blues referring to jazz. However, Iris Szeghy devoted herself most intensively to Johann Sebastian Bach,
who once more become a link to Paul Klee.45

370

This content downloaded from

82.49.44.75 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:32:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Music in Art XLII/1–2 (2017)

1. Helmuth Christian Wolff, “Fuge in Rot” from Paul Klee Suite op. 75 (1921), bars 1–5. © Ann-Elisabeth
Wolff.

Ad Parnassum was commissioned by the Kulturstiftung Pro Helvetia and was composed for the Camerata
Bern. It is a piece for string orchestra in which Szeghy was particularly interested in Klee’s pictorial compo-
sition methods, which offered an abundance of inspiration: “Die für Klee typische Verspieltheit, Poesie und
die feingliedrigen Strukturen einerseits, die klaren, schweren Linien und das Düstere andererseits faszinieren
mich und regen meine musikalische Fantasie immer wieder aufs neue an.“46 She has chosen for Ad Parnassum
seven paintings from different periods of Klee’s work. The movements of her piece are the following: (1)
Fuge in Rot; (2) Sängerin der komischen Oper; (3) E; (4) Fischbild; (5) Meerschnecken-König; (6) E; (7) Engel
im Werden; and (8) Ad Parnassum.
The movement laconically titled E acts as a pizzicato intermezzo in the cycle twice. The other six
paintings serve as models for the main movements of the cycle and form three thematic sections: The first
section includes paintings inspired by music, the second one consists of paintings inspired by nature, and
the third one comprises paintings with a metaphysical, transcendental connotation.47
Four out of the six main movements are inspired by the composers that Klee favored: J.S. Bach and W.A.
Mozart. In Szeghy’s string trio Goldberg (2008) Bach’s art of variation was combined in a fascinating way with
new sounds and techniques. In Fuge in Rot the principle of the fugue and the exposition of a fugue or fugato
are the connecting factors. The fugato is framed by a brief introduction and a similarly short postlude. The

371

This content downloaded from

82.49.44.75 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:32:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Monika Fink, Polyphony in Image and Sound: Paul Klee and Music

2 & 3. Iris Szeghy, Fuge in Rot, bars 6–14 &

36–39. © Iris Szegy.

fortissimo chords are re-used in the final movement of Ad Parnassum. The fugato in the brief movement with
a duration of slightly more than two minutes appears three times. The fugato is in five parts, based on the
structure of the string orchestra that usually comprises five groups (first and second violin, viola, violoncello,
and double bass).
The motif itself constitutes a link to Paul Klee: The polyrhythmic staccato motif (pp, leggierissimo, gioco-
so) is first heard in the violoncelli [example 2] and then passes from double bass, viola, and second violin to
the first violin, until five-part texture is achieved. The polyrhythm of the motif and its rhythmic figuration
respectively is an analogy to the “soaring”, interlinked shapes in the painting. Another two expositions
follow, in which the interval structure of the motif is slightly changed in the second fugato [example 3]. The
principle of the fugue is the first starting point for the composition; the second is dynamics.
Klee’s Fuge in Rot depicts distinct dynamics: Floating color shapes overlap in a progression leading from
dark to bright; the shape clusters display a powerful, dynamic progression from left to right, with the size
of the shapes and the color intensities rising and falling: “Aus der Dunkelheit aufsteigend erreichen alle eine
intensive Rotstufe, um dann in der höchsten Helligkeit abzubrechen und wieder einzutauchen in die Dun-
kelheit des Schwarzraumes“.48 This mirrors not only temporality and movement in music but also dynamic
composition. The progressive musical entries are visible and graspable at the same time; musical time has
become a visual factor. The composer takes up the idea by developing the dynamics of the fugato from a
mysterious pianissimo into an increasingly intense fortissimo, within a short passage between bar 14 and 19
in fast tempo (quarter note equals 126).
The whole composition is defined by polyphonous, linear thought; the building blocks are intervals,
moving mostly in small, chromatic steps. The only homophone parts are chords at the beginning of each
section and at the very end. The parts are indicated by tonality or by modality—the center around one tone;
each time it is a “G”.
The connection to Bach is limited to the fugue in Fuge in Rot. In Ad Parnassum, however, there are two
specific references to J.S. Bach and W.A. Mozart each, thus rendering the connection to Paul Klee even more
obvious. The fourth movement Fischbild and the seventh movement Engel im Werden refer to Bach: In Fischbild
we hear an excerpt from the prelude in E minor from the first volume of Das Wohltemperirte Clavier. Engel im
Werden includes an excerpt from the chorale Ich will hier bei dir stehen from the Matthäus-Passion. Both excerpts
are alienated. The second movement Sängerin der Komischen Oper (an allusion to Klee’s ironic, playful wate-
rcolor of the same name) and the fifth movement Meerschnecken-König refer to Mozart. The second movement
quotes the aria of the Queen of the Night, the fifth movement uses a quote from Sarastro’s aria “O Isis und
Osiris”. Again both quotes were heavily alienated.

372

This content downloaded from

82.49.44.75 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:32:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
 Music in Art XLII/1–2 (2017)

The cycle is concluded with a musical reference to the large-format oil painting Ad Parnassum, which Klee
created in 1932 towards the end of his time at the Bauhaus and which was the eponym of Szeghy’s com-
position. As has been mentioned before, this final movement is introduced with a striking chordal motif—the
very same with which the Fuge in Rot began. And so the circle is complete. In summary, Iris Szeghy’s compo-
sition constitutes an extremely well-made musical reflection of Klee’s imagery in many aspects.
Translated by Dr. Iris Thiele-Schmied

NOTES

1 16
Tagebücher von Paul Klee, 1898–1918, ed. by Felix Klee
(Köln: M. DuMont Schauberg, 1957), 152.
2
Monika Fink, Musik nach Bildern: Programmbezogenes Kom-
ponieren im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert (Innsbruck: Edition Helbling,
1986), 76.
3
Tilman Osterwold, ”Melodie und Rhythmus—der Klang
der Bilder“, Paul Klee: Melodie—Rhythmus—Tanz, ed. by Toni
Stooss (Salzburg: Museum der Moderne, 2008), 35-41, here 40.
4
Cf. Michael Baumgartner, “Vom ‘Structuralrhythmus’ zum
‘polyphonen’ Bildgefüge: Eine Einführung in Paul Klees Be-
schäftigung mit Malerei und Musik am Bauhaus”, Paul Klee: Me-
lodie—Rhythmus—Tanz, 89-103.
5
Cf. Felix Klee, Paul Klee: Leben und Werk in Dokumenten,
ausgewählt aus den nachgelassenen Aufzeichnungen und den unver-
öffentlichten Briefen (Zürich: Diogenes Verlag, 1960), 129.
6 21
Paul Klee, Form- und Gestaltungslehre. I: Das bildnerische
Denken, ed. by Jürg Spiller (Basel: Schwabe, 1964), 521.
7 22
Quoted in: Bert Bilzer, Jürgen Eyssen, and Otto Stelzer,
eds., Das große Buch der Kunst: Baukunst, Plastik, Malerei, Graphik,
Kunsthandwerk, Bildband, Kunstgeschichte, Lexikon (Braunschweig:
Westermann, 1958), 489.
8 23
Andrea Gottdang, Vorbild Musik: Die Geschichte einer Idee in
der Malerei im deutschsprachigen Raum, 1780–1915 (München: Deu-
tscher Kunstverlag, 2004), 402.
9
Quoted in: Susanne Ulbrich, ”Die Polyphonie in den Bil-
dern Paul Klees”, Zeit und Raum in Musik und Bildender Kunst, ed.
by Tatjana Böhme and Klaus Mehner (Köln: Böhlau Verlag, 2000),
151-161, here 153.
10
Qoted in: Margit Rowell, ed., Frank Kupka, 1871–1957
(Zürich: Kunsthaus Zürich, 1976), 247.
11
Cf. František Kupka, quoted in Brigitte Léal, ”Werkkom-
mentar zu Kupkas Werken“, no. 67–69, František Kupka, 1871–
1957: Eine Retrospektive, concept by Friedemann Malsch (Paris:
Centre Pompidou; Ostfildern: Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein, 2003),
75–77, here 75.
12
Paul Erich Küppers, Der Kubismus: Ein künstlerisches Form-
problem unserer Zeit (Leipzig: Verlag von Klinkhardt & Biermann,
1920), 40.
13
Susanne Ulbrich, ”Die Polyphonie in den Bildern Paul
Klees”, Zeit und Raum in Musik und Bildender Kunst, ed. by Tatjana
Böhme and Klaus Mehner (Köln; Weimar; Wien: Böhlau Verlag,
2000), 151-161.
14
Paul Klee, ”Schöpferische Konfession“, Paul Klee: Kunst-
lehre—Aufsätze, Vorträge, Rezensionen und Beiträge zur bildnerischen
Formlehre. Reclam-Bibliothek 1064 (Leipzig: Reclam, 1987), 60-66,
here 65.
15
Paul Klee, Form- und Gestaltungslehre. I: Das bildnerische
Denken, 296.
Cited in Willi Reich, ”Paul Klee und die Musik“, Schweize-
rische Musikzeitung 95 (1955), 347-348; cf. Paul Klee, ”Schöpfe-
rische Konfession“, Über den Expressionismus in der Literatur und
die neue Dichtung, ed. by Kasimir Edschmid. Tribüne der Kunst
und Zeit 13 (Berlin: Reiß, 1920), 28-40.
17
Cf. Fink, Musik nach Bildern, 76.
18
For example, a few bars from the adagio in the sonata in G
major for violin and harpsichord by J.S. Bach: Beiträge zur bild-
nerischen Formlehre; Beilage zur Vorlesung am Bauhaus Weimar vom
16. Januar 1922, illustrated in: Michael Baumgartner, “Vom
‘Structuralrhythmus’ zum ‘polyphonen’ Bildgefüge”, 91.
19
Michael Eidenbenz, Polyphone Malerei: Paul Klees musika-
lisches Kunstverständnis <www.texthalde.ch/Texthalde/Klee_Po
lyphone_Malerei.html>.
20
Ibid.
Gradus ad Parnassum refers to a counterpoint textbook by
Johann Joseph Fux, published in 1725.
For a collection of compositions inspired by paintings by
Paul Klee, cf. Monika Fink, Online-Datenbank Musik nach Bildern,
<orawww.uibk.ac.at/apex/uprod/f?p=20090827:3:0::NO::P3_I
D:713>.
Paul Klee, Form- und Gestaltungslehre. I: Das bildnerische
Denken, 296.
24
Sándor Veress, Hommage à Paul Klee für 2 Klaviere und
Streicher, <essays.musikmph.de/composers/s_z/veress_sandor
/1.html>
25
Unsuk Chin, Gestalten aus drei Bildern von Paul Klee (1983),
for flute, violin and piano. Statisch-dynamische Steigerung is the
second movement.
26
Roberto García Morillo, Divertimento sobre temas de Paul
Klee (1967), for wind quintet. Abstrakte Farbharmonie (Armonia
abstracta de colores) is number 19.
27
Gunther Schuller, Seven Studies on Themes of Paul Klee
(1959), for orchestra. Antike Harmonien (inspired by the painting
Alter Klang) is the first movement.
28
Sándor Veress, Hommage à Paul Klee (1951), for two pianos
and string orchestra. Alter Klang is the third movement.
29
Tzvi Avni, Apropos Klee (2000), for mixed choir, piano,
clarinet, bass clarinet, and percussion.
30
Quoted in Michael Baumgartner, “Vom ‘Structuralrhyth-
mus’ zum ‘polyphonen’ Bildgefüge”, 91.
31
Zeichen in Gelb is the first movement in Hommage à Paul
Klee, Grün in Grün is the sixth movement.
32
The Swiss painter and musician Robert Strübin was
enaged with the reverse procedure, replacing each note in a musi-
cal piece with a color square, cf. Robert Strübin (1897–1965): Re-
trospektive, Musikbilder und andere Werke—Sonderausstellung: Bern-

373

This content downloaded from

82.49.44.75 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:32:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
Monika Fink, Polyphony in Image and Sound: Paul Klee and Music
hard Wyrsch, Buochs, neue Werke. Luzern, Kunstmuseum, 12.4.–18.5.
1970. (Luzern: Kunstmuseum, 1970), unpaginated.
33
For an overview of fugue paintings cf. Jörg Jewanski and
Hajo Düchting, Musik und bildende Kunst im 20. Jahrhundert: Be-
gegnungen—Berührungen—Beeinflussungen (Kassel: Kassel Univer-
sity Press, 2009), 301-302.
34
Watercolor, pastel, and gouache, 24.3 × 37.2 cm, private
collection in Switzerland. Cf. Nello Ponente, Klee: Biographical and
Critical Study (Geneva: Skira, 1960), 71.
35
Willi Grohmann, “Paul Klee”; quoted in Vom Klang der
Bilder, ed. by Karin von Maur (München: Prestel Verlag, 1999), 55.
36
”Musikalische Einflüsse bei Klee“, Melos XL/1 (1973), 5-
22, here 14.
37
Friedrich Teja, “Johann Sebastian Bach in der klassischen
Moderne“, Vom Klang der Bilder: Die Musik in der Kunst des 20.
Jahrhunderts, ed. by Karin von Maur (München: Presetel, 1985),
328-335.
38
Michael Baumgartner und Claude Lorent, “Zum Werk
von Paul Klee: Interview mit Pierre Boulez”, Paul Klee: Melodie—
Rhythmus—Tanz (Weitra: Bibliothek der Provinz, 2008), 253-255,
here 254.
39
Christoph Wagner, “exacte versuche im bereich der
374
This content downloaded from
82.49.44.75 on Sun, 28 Feb 2021 13:32:47 UTC
All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
kunst“. Paul Klee und Hans Kayser, Paul Klee: Melodie—Rhyth-
mus—Tanz, 125-135, here 127.
40
This composition has not been performed yet and it is
unavailable in print. I would like to thank Ann-Elisabeth Wolff,
the composer’s daughter, for providing the score.
41
Cf. Lukas Christensen and Monika Fink, Wie Bilder klingen:
Tagungsband zum Symposium Musik nach Bildern (Wien: LIT
Verlag, 2011), 286-287.
42
Cf. Fink, Musik nach Bildern, 96.
43
Tzvi Avni, Im eigenen Tempo: Mein Leben mit der Musik
(Saarbrücken: Pfau-Verlag, 2014), 89.
44
Thomas Meyer, Dass uns etwas aufginge: Ein Porträt der
Komponistin Iris Szeghy <www.szeghy.ch/25.0.0.1.0.0.phtml>.
45
For example, her composition Ciaconna, referring to
Bach’s partita for solo violin no. 2 in d minor, BWV 1004.
46
Iris Szeghy, quoted in Thomas Meyer, Das und etwas auf-
ginge.
47
Iris Szeghy, Werkkommentar <www.epta.ch/files/2006_
bern_bovey.pdf>
48
Cf. Lukas Christensen and Monika Fink, Wie Bilder klingen:
Tagungsband zum Symposium Musik nach Bildern, 287.