Josip Slavenski's Moving Pictures - Music for Chamber Orchestra

Abstract

Abstract: The question of the relationship between music and painting in the field of fine arts is a familiar one, especially if we are examining that relation in a specific era, such as during the first half of the twentieth century. In that manner, the main topic of this paper will be a comparison of the composition by Josip Slavenski called Muzika za kamerni orkestar (Music for Chamber Orchestra, here chosen as a case-study), completed in 1938, and the early avant-garde works by Natalia Goncharova. In addition to that, the question of the integration of folklore elements into a modernist work of art will be examined.

Summary: This paper deals with the notion of modernist innovation via the use of folklore in the paintings of Natalia Goncharova and music of Josip Slavenski. By a brief analysis of their works (several Neoprimitivistic, Cubofuturistic and Rayonist paintings by Goncharova, and Music 38 by Slavenski), I tried to demonstrate the ways of creating modernist art by seeking inspiration in folklore. The reinterpretation of folklore in both music and painting always consists of filtering folklore, or folk like motifs, through modernist painting styles or compositional techniques. It is worth noting that the use of folklore does not necessarily creates anachronic works of art, but rather, in the works of these two artists, folklore is used to create a different and rather unique approach to contemporary art, thus enriching it. In other words, contemporary art is not negated, but brought further into modernism.