The Lithuanian Art Museum
A Portrait of M. K.
Čiurlionis: Celebrating 125 Years of a Musical and Artistic Genius
The Lithuanian Art Museum's writing staff includes Romualdas Budrys, director of Lithuanian Art Museum, Danutė Mukienė, main editor, Nerutė Kligienė, technical editor, and Dalia Sirgėdaitė, writer/editor.
It's a lot easier these days to find the name "M. K. Čiurlionis" listed in art books and music libraries. That's only because Lithuania's re-entry into the world has helped his artwork, music, and persona to become better known. In addition, Lithuania's Seimas (parliament) President and musicologist, Vytautas Landsbergis, has championed the works of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis for many years through books, magazine articles, concerts, recordings, and films.
And now, 125 years since the birth of M. K. Čiurlionis, special concerts and exhibits throughout the U.S. and Lithuania will highlight his works and life. Most of these events will take place in October and November. Their purpose is to continue to pay respect and homage to a true Lithuanian artistic genius.
Čiurlionis's life and works take on a mystical, creative, yet short journey. The Lithuanian Art Museum in Lithuania produced a thorough biography of Čiurlionis and an analysis of his artwork and compositions. According to the Museum, he was born on September 22nd, 1875, in Varėna, southern Lithuania, where his father was an organist. Three years later his father moved to Druskininkai, a health resort on the Nemunas, to take up the post of organist. It was here that Čiurlionis grew up and was to frequently spend his holidays. He was more than usually fond of the delicate and dreamlike quality of the natural surroundings of Druskininkai. Their influence can be felt in both his music and his painting.
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| A Fairy Tale. Triptych. Part II |
Taught by this father, he could read music without any difficulty at the age of seven. He continued his musical education at Prince Oginskis orchestra school in Plungė. Here, from 1882 to 1893, he learned to play the flute and several other instruments and attempted to compose music. Some of his compositions were played on the occasion of the Princes name day. The Prince, who gave the talented young man his support, directed him to the Warsaw Conservatory of Music.
Čiurlionis was in Warsaw from 1893 to 1899. At first he studied piano and later composition. During his free time he studied the natural sciences, the history of culture, and literature. The grandeur of the universe and its astonishing harmony deeply interested him. He attempted to understand cosmogonic problems from the popularly and poetically written works of C. Flam Marion and from the hypotheses of Kant and LaPlace.
While studying at the Warsaw Conservatory, he composed the cantata "De Profundis" (for choir and symphony orchestra), two sonatas, variations for string quartet, choral and instrumental fugues, and many short pieces for piano.
When he graduated from the Conservatory, he was offered the position of director of the Lublin School of Music, but declined and earned a living by giving private lessons.
In 1901, Čiurlionis completed the symphonic poem "In the Forest", which won first prize in the competition organized by Zamoyski. He again received the support of Prince M. Oginski, as well as that of some of his own friends, and was able to go to the Leipzig Conservatory of Music, where in 1901 and 1902 he studied composition under K. Reinecke and counterpoint under S. Jadassohn.
While studying in Leipzig, he composed the overture Kęstutis, a fugue for string orchestra, and a four-part string quartet. This was his diploma work on finishing the Leipzig Conservatory.
When he returned to Warsaw in the autumn of 1902, he was offered a teaching post at the Conservatory, but continued to give private lessons for rich and cultured families. In Plungė, he sketched details of the Princes mansion and park; in Druskininkai, he drew landscapes.
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| Sonata of the Stars. Andante. |
When he returned to Warsaw from Leipzig, he at first attended Kauziks drawing school; and then from 1904 to 1906, he studied at the Academy of Art under I. Tichy, K. Krzyzanowski and F. Ruszczyc. Although he was anxious to get to know the principles of painting, he nevertheless took to free composition more willingly. It satisfied the development of his imagination, which was enriched with new visions from the Bible, the ancient Hindu religion, and the works of Tagore, Ruskin, Wilde, Kipling, Merezhkovsky, and others. His paintings were almost always awarded a prize at the competitions held by the Academy. The Academy acquired the cycle of six paintings called "The Storm", in which man's spiritual struggle between evil and good was depicted.
More freedom in the field of culture came to Lithuania after the revolution of 1905, and Čiurlionis made up his mind to dedicate all his past and future work to Lithuania (in a letter dated Jan. 7, 1906 to his brother Paulius). Čiurlionis's works were put on display at the first Lithuanian art exhibition held from Dec. 27, 1906 to Feb. 15, 1907 in Vilnius.
In Vilnius, he was an active member of the Lithuanian Art Society, organized the music section, conducted the Rūta Society Choir, and wrote on music and art in the Lithuanian press. He put about sixty of his works on show at the second art exhibition, which was opened on March 12, 1908. In the autumn of 1908, he went to St. Petersburg, hoping to find better living conditions there than in Vilnius.
His first works were put on show at the exhibition held at the St. Petersburg Academy of Art, and were well received by Russian critics. Several of his better works were put on show a second time (in 1908) at an exhibition organized by the art journal Apollon (edited by S. Makovsky). However, Čiurlionis was badly off materially, not always having enough money to buy paints. Besides that, he was in poor health and became mentally ill through overworking in 1909. He was taken to a sanatorium near Warsaw and showed signs of improvement, but caught a cold and died unexpectedly on April 10th, 1911. His short, but creative life produced over 250 compositions for piano, string instruments, orchestra, and choir, and some 300 paintings.
Čiurlionis's Musical Works
Čiurlionis made his mark primarily as a composer with exceptional talent and good professional training. He is the first to have written Lithuanian chamber and symphonic music.
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| Sonata of the Sea. Finale. |
He was most prolific in writing for the piano (over 150 compositions). The most outstanding of these is the three-part cycle "The Sea"; others consist of short preludes, fugues, canons, etudes, and variations. Their themes are short, condensed, of clear and finished form, melodious and emotional. Some of them are serene and optimistic; others are imbued with an indefinable unease and tragic pessimism.
Sometimes contrasting moods of tempestuous rage and quiet resignation alternate in the same composition. Čiurlionis achieved this through the masterful use of polyphonic technique, which he had grown fond of. The most striking example of this technique is the "Fugue in B flat for four parts of wide compass" (1909).
In his most important piano composition "The Sea" (1908), the third and last part of the cycle (Finale) is written on the monothematic principle, characteristic of Čiurlionis last musical compositions. Other works include the overture "Kęstutis" (only the piano-score remains), the symphonic poems "In the Forest" and "The Sea" for orchestra, and the cantata "De Profundis" for orchestra and mixed chorus. The cantata is in three parts, its text being based on the well-known psalm of David.
There is more individuality in the symphonic poem "In the Forest" (1901). This is the first of his poems, and the first of its kind in Lithuanian music, to be written on the free form of the sonata for a symphony orchestra (with harp) -- three times its normal constitution but without percussion instruments. Its melody is lyrical, and serene; the harmony and rhythm are not complicated; the instrumentation is colorful. Čiurlionis re-created the idyllic landscape of his wooded native land by means of this poem.
His second symphonic poem "The Sea" (1908), written by an already mature composer, is more complex and pithy in all of its compositional structure. This is Čiurlionis's greatest and most original musical work. It is also written in sonata form, and is for a large orchestra with three times the usual number of woodwind instruments, six French horns, four trumpets, two harps, and organ. "The Sea" is strong in dramatic expression with rays of calm subsidence. It was the composers aim to express the anxiety and calm of the human soul through sound images, on the parallel of the sea raging and abating.
Folk songs used for piano music and harmonized for chorus constitutes a separate group. In harmonizing folk songs, Čiurlionis used his own stylistic devices (a lively bass, wide range of pitch, chromatic progressions and altered chords, and canons) in moderation, and maintained the form, simplicity and mood of the folk songs.
Čiurlionis musical works and harmonized folk songs were published in the following publications: Vieversėlis (The Lark) in 1909 -- a collection of folk songs for elementary schools; Muzikos Kūriniai (Musical Compositions) in 1925; Kūriniai Fortepijonui (Works for the Piano) in 1957; Liaudies Dainos ir Kūriniai Fortepijonui (Folk Songs and Works for the Piano) in 1959; Preliūdai ir Fūgos (Preludes and Fuges) in 1959; Fūgos, Kanonai ir Preliūdai (Fugues, Canons, and Preludes) in 1965; and Styginis Kvartetas (String Quartet) in 1966.
Čiurlionis's Paintings
Čiurlionis is not as well known for his melodious music as for his colorful paintings in which he showed himself to be an original and profound artist of great feeling. The second talent that lay in him broke through of its own accord in artistic work of independent type when he attended the Warsaw Academy of Art for a short while after completing his music studies. He stands alone in Lithuanian art because of his unusually individual style of painting, more an inner flair than an acquired technique.
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| Fairy Tale of the Castle. |
Čiurlionis began to paint when he was already a mature composer and carried music over into painting. He not only used the principles of musical composition in his art work, but also gave musical terms to some of his paintings, calling them preludes, fugues, and sonatas.
Especially near to and characteristic of music is the development of a theme in several paintings, where each of them reveals diverse scenes and moods. The compositional structure of the three or four-part sonata is found most often. The frequent repetition of motifs, the melodic rhythm of the lines, and the playful harmony of colors also join his painting to his music. For example, the symphonic poem "The Sea" and the cycle of paintings "The Sonata of the Sea" (1908) draw on this kind of analogy as a means of expression. Besides, one theme joins both of these works; namely the dialectics of rest and movement in the rhythm of nature.
Delving into the foundations of the universe, of nature and mans existence, Čiurlionis formulated his own conceptions and visions, which led him from music to painting. He painted his first works and cycles of symbolic characters while attending the Warsaw Academy of Art from 1904 to 1906: "The Serpent" (Vision); "Rex"; "The Creation of the World" (Let There be Light); "The Deluge"; "The Storm"; "Silence"; "Stillness", "Knowledge", "The Music of the Forest", "The City", "The Bridge", "The Ship", "The Funeral" and others. Most of these paintings were put on show at the student exhibitions at the Warsaw Academy of Art and at the first Lithuanian Art Exhibition held in Vilnius in 1906.
Čiurlionis did his best artwork between 1907 and 1909, while living in Vilnius and St. Petersburg. At that time he passed over from realistic symbolism to a more mystical kind of symbolism, which fitted better to the view of the world that he had created. In the universe and in nature he saw a peculiar inner life, full of mystery and elemental forcse. Depicting this through his paintings, he gave the visible world a spiritualism appearance as if it were some kind of echo or reflection of another invisible world. Both merged in his fantasy and became an astonishing symphony of symbols. This is how his triptychs, sonatas, and cycles, making up the greater part of his work, came into being -- as for example the 1907 triptychs: "Spring", "Sonata of Spring", "The Cycle of Winter", "The Triptych of the Folk Tale", "The Sonata of the Sun", "The Cycle Signs of the Zodiac", and the 1908 "Sonata of the Sea", "Sonata of the Pyramids", "The Triptych of Summer", "Sonata of Summer", "Sonata of the Stars", "Sonata of the Serpent", and others. In these works Čiurlionis achieved great sensitivity as well as expressiveness and elegance of artistic form.
The above-mentioned series of works, painted on subjects concerning the universe and nature, develop one idea or another through scenes of diverse moods. The sonata composition of four scenes predominates. The first (Allegro) is usually lively and dynamic in mood; the second (Andante) is quiet and serious; the last scenes (Scherzo, Finale) are impetuous and stormy, dramatic in mood, expressing victory or sudden resignation. On the whole, the sonatas are bright and optimistic, as if they were enthusiastic hymns to eternal life.
Symbols drawn from natural phenomena are strikingly vivid in some of Čiurlioniss other paintings: "Hymn" (1907), "My Road" (1907), "The Black Sun" (1908), and the great "Rex" (1909). Visions of a world of happiness, beauty, and peace are united to these predominating subjects in others: "The Altar", "The Offering", "The Angel" (all 1908), and "Paradise", "Fairy-Tale of the Castle" (1909).
A couple of paintings depict the life of Lithuania symbolically: "The Fairy-Tale of Kings" (1908), "The Knight" (1909). Čiurlionis felt deeply about the natural beauty of Lithuania, fascinating and dream-like in its nuances of gentle colors, and he carried it over into his paintings. Lithuanias nature and the world outlook of the Lithuanian nation are reflected in all his principal works. He was acquainted with this outlook through knowledge of the peoples way of life and customs, folk tales and songs.
Various works of engraving make up a separate group: prints, drawings, book covers, initials, vignettes. Most of his works are painted in watercolors or tempera on paper, very few in oil on canvas.
Čiurlionis paintings belong to those works of art that stir the imagination, compelling one to think and to interpret them in a variety of ways. Some people hold his paintings to be the first examples of abstract art; others would deny this. The individualistic form of his paintings is strongly bound up with a meaningful idea content. The basic meaning of his work was to reveal the profound foundation of eternal life and its divine harmony in the reality of nature.
M.K. Čiurlionis events in the United States and Lithuania