MONDRIAN VARIATIONS – Sándor Vály
For the painter Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) music was a source of inspiration. He loved dancing, and often the rhythms of music and dance found their way into his paintings. One of his most famous paintings is Broadway Boogie-Woogie. Artist Sándor Vály and composed-musician Éva Polgár have notated Mondrian’s paintings, creating an audiovisual work from them. The premiere of the work will be performed at the Pori Art Museum in May 2012. The composition will be interpreted by Éva Polgár on the piano and artist Sándor Vály on the sampler.
MEDIA RELEASE
SÁNDOR VÁLY: MONDRIAN VARIATIONS
March 30 – May 27, 2012, MEDIApiste
MEDIA EVENT: March 28, 2012, 11:00–12:00
The event will feature artist Sándor Vály and Mondrian Variations Piano and Sampler Works album producer Jussi Lehtisalo (Ektro Records).
WORLD PREMIERE OF MONDRIAN VARIATIONS AND ALBUM RELEASE:
May 27, 2012, at 3:00 PM
An audiovisual performance featuring Éva Polgár on piano and Sándor Vály on sampler.
Mondrian Variations is the second part of Sándor Vály’s audiovisual art project, which began in 2003 with his exploration of Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s (1525–1596) paintings. In 2009, Vály started working on Piet Mondrian’s works in collaboration with pianist Éva Polgár. Polgár undertook the writing of musical scores and performing the piano parts of the project.
The initial compositional method, already used for Bruegel, proved applicable only to Mondrian’s early works, such as Composition 10 in Black and White (Pier and Ocean) (1915) and Composition in Line (1916–1917). For Mondrian’s later works, based on color, areas, and rhythm, the method had to be reinterpreted.
Vály and Polgár began by measuring the proportions of color areas in Mondrian’s works. Composition with Grid 8 (1919) provided a new approach, leading to more complex pieces such as Broadway Boogie Woogie, Victory Boogie Woogie, and New York City 1.
Mondrian Variations was completed after three years of work. Vály and Polgár selected seven works in chronological order, excluding figurative pieces created before 1913–1914. They chose pieces that best represented Mondrian’s different periods, dividing the material into three phases: Laren-Blaricum (1915–1919), Paris (1919–1938), and London-New York (1938–1944).
The first two variations, Pier and Ocean (Composition No. 10 in Black and White) (1915) and Composition with Line (1917), closely adhere to the compositional techniques used for the Bruegel pieces. Both yielded remarkable auditory experiences. For example, Pier and Ocean reflects a meditative atmosphere, maintaining the piano’s opening sound throughout, accompanied by low- and high-pitched string instruments. Composition with Line (1917) features a translucent texture with fleeting oboe tones, lively organ passages in its second section, and playful rhythm transformations in the piano part.
The works from the Paris (1919–1938) and London-New York (1938–1944) phases are colorful compositions. Vály and Polgár developed their system based on synesthetic theory, integrating a 12-segment color wheel with a 12-step circle of fifths. For example, in Composition with Grid 8 (1919), the color blocks corresponded to musical tones: red = E, orange-yellow = D, and blue = G♯ (A♭). These pieces utilized piano, organ, and wind and string instruments for a richer auditory experience.
For Broadway Boogie Woogie (1942–1943), the tones were similarly derived from the color and fifths system, excluding gray. For gray, Mondrian’s music theory was used, which relates closely to his ideas of unity and duality.
In works such as Composition with Yellow, Blue, Black, and Grey (1921) and New York City (unfinished) (1941), the use of the keyboard was entirely omitted. Instead, samplers took center stage. The concluding piece, New York City (unfinished) (1941), integrates counting as a musical element. The marimbas and counting pulse culminate in a swirling finale, echoing trends in contemporary music.
Among the seven variations, New York City (unfinished) (1941) perhaps most powerfully captures Mondrian’s art’s timelessness, bridging the past, present, and future.
Translated with ChatGPT