L. G. Safiullina, G. I. Batyrshina
98
In
these scenes, “the colour depth of decorations and costumes
intensifies the sounding music, reflecting the circular motions of the
actors.”
48
As related by his relatives, Chagall worked on Aleko with Leonid
Myasin to the music of Tchaikovsky, and on the declamation of Aleksandr
Pushkin’s poems by his wife Bella
Rosenfeld Chagall, striving for a genuine
concord
between music, poetry, painting and choreography.
His scenography for Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute, staged in New
York in 1967, became the concluding chord of Chagall’s theatrical career.
“Chagall repeatedly confessed his love for Mozart, considering The Magic
Flute the best of operas, and the whole music of the Austrian composer -
‘harmonic, spiritual and religious.’ The Magic Flute was especially close to him
in its combination of serious and ‘comic’ (folk) opera, love story with
grotesque and buffoonery, religious-philosophical (masonic) problematics
with a fairy tale.”
49
In
last years, Chagall developed an interest in stained glass art, into
which he also implemented musical plots. In his stained glass composition
American Windows, which consists of six parts and was created for the Art
Institute of Chicago, commissioned by the City Hall for the USA
bicentenary, reminiscences of his early works appear.
Fig. 49. The Firebird in the Enchanted Forest. A sketch of curtain for the
Firebird ballet by I.
Stravinsky, 1945. Paper, watercolour. Private collection
48
Cramp 2008.
49
Apchinskaya 2010.
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro
Musical Images as a Reflection of the Artistic Universalism of Marc Chagall
99
Fig. 50. The Firebird. Decoration for overture of the
Firebird
ballet by I. Stravinsky, 1945
As in the series of panels for the State Jewish Chamber Theatre,
Chagall uses cubist devices creatively, allegorically presenting music, dance
and theatre on separate panels.
50
Another three panels are devoted to the
fine art, the Declaration of Independence of the USA and symbols of
American national identity (national emblem, the Statue of Liberty against
the background of silhouettes of American architecture). Amongst these,
appear the outlines of Vitebsk streets, the Eifel Tower, silhouettes of lovers,
animals and fish also emerge. Such return in the later life line to the images
of distant past in another context, makes the painter’s artistic development
concentric, thus summarising his search for a world outlook.
50
In 1920 Chagall created four panels for the Moscow theatre, personifying the synthesis of
theatrical art: Music, Dance, Drama (Theatre) and Literature.
Fig. 51. Windows of America. First and second stained glass panels,
1977. Chicago, Arts Institute
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro
L. G. Safiullina, G. I. Batyrshina
100
In this work Chagall unites different arts, different parts of the world
(Europe and America), religions (Christianity and Judaism) and various
painting techniques, summing up all the impressions of his life.
The theme of music is distinctly highlighted in the first stained glass
panel of the Windows, devoted to musical art (fig. 51). It depicts a
trumpeting angel, descending from the top of a gold throne. His splendid
image creates a sense of the sound of solemn hymns. The violin and a page
of printed music hanging in the air intensify musical effect. The curved
body of the violin is echoed in the shape of the guitar, matching with it,
repeating, endlessly scattering their contours across the whole glass panel.
The wind player’s figure is also “doubled,” but in scarcely distinguishable
hatching, bleeding through only with sunlight. Chagall’s virtuosic play of
colours and shadings, achieved through the technique of incomplete glass
painting, makes a strong emotional impression: “Colour, as a magnet ...
draws the eye ... Multitude of shades of dark blue, blue, cornflower blue, sky
blue ... - the colour of the bottomless sky
... the magic world of Chagall’s fantasy.”
51
Grace Calderon felt
52
that in this panel the
painter manages to convey the pathetic
character of blues melodies, famous in
Chicago - the city of Muddy Waters and
Buddy Guy - since olden times.
53
Glorifying God with a trumpet
fanfare, the ascension of a solemn
Halleluiah skywards is represented in the
stained glass of Chichester Cathedral in
England (fig. 52). The narrative is based
on lines from psalm 150: “... any breath
praises the God.” It is one of the most
sonorous of Chagall’s works, where the
sound of shofars, trumpets, violins,
keyboards (possibly a small organ),
tambourine and cymbals merge in one
musical greeting. The image of King
Solomon riding a biblical donkey (mule) harp in hand is placed at the top of
51
http://vankaremnikiforovich.blogspot.ru/2010/08/blog-post_2546.html, accessed 25
June 2014.
52
http://gracecalderone.blogspot.ru/2014/03/america-windows-marc-chagall-1977-art.html,
accessed 17 June 2014.
53
Muddy Waters and Buddy Guy are famous Chicago bluesmen.
Fig. 52. Stained glass window, 1978.
Chichester Cathedral
www.cclbsebes.ro/muzeul-municipal-ioan-raica.html / www.cimec.ro