Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

Chamber Music
Munich 1905
The concert was almost a family affair: Niko, Friedrich, and Claudia played a Bach flute
sonata; Friedrich and his mother, a Beethoven sonata for cello and piano, and as a final
offering Claudia premiered the two piano pieces that Webern had dedicated to Alexandra.
Claudia’s efforts were graciously applauded, but the forbiddingly abstract Webern piece left all
except Alexandra aghast.
Clara, who played the piano herself, asked Claudia to play the pieces again and allow
her to sit next to her and look at the score. She discovered Webern’s color notations. An
intense debate ensued about colors and music. Clara reported that similar attempts at
combining colors and music were being explored by Rimsky-Korsakov and his student Skriabin
in St. Petersburg. To her knowledge, the two composers had met with little success, they could
not agree on a universal correlation between pitch and color.
Alexandra was amused. She had seen vivid colors to Webern’s music, but neither were
the colors the same today as then, nor did they agree with Webern’s notations in the score.
Professor Dahl shook his head and suggested that the reason could be that they were
not "seeing colors" at all, but that the brain intercepted unformed sensations at different times
and in different places along the neurons of the cortex. The images were not formed on the
retina. This suggested that there existed neural shortcuts between the auditory and the visual
neuronic systems, which connected at different places in different individuals, and besides,
very few people possessed them at all.
Alexandra supported his theory. She certainly was not looking at any colored shapes in
front of her eyes. The spontaneous fireworks only existed inside her head, normal vision was
not involved.
Dahl, content with this piece of voluntary information, did not insist on a further
discussion of these phenomena.
Friedrich, who had fidgeted restlessly for some time, diverted this familiar discussion
with an absurd suggestion. "Earlier tonight I asked Konrad why all modern revolutions seem to
have begun during Carnival. Konrad had never thought about it and was skeptical. However,
arguably the revolutions of 1848 in Prussia, Hungary, Austria, and France started at this time of
the year. Louis XVI was guillotined on January 21, 1793; the uprisings that led to the Peasant
Wars in Southern Germany started in February 1525; Kapodistria in Greece in 1821 and
Garibaldi in Italy in 1859 rose in late February, and now the Russian revolution breaks out
during the same time of the year. Had anyone an explanation?
Alexandra thought of the penitents marching on Ash Wednesday. Did a connection exist
between penitence and revolution? She offered this observation as a contribution. Katharina
suggested that one should investigate the horoscopes of these events, she was sure the stars
would provide the desired explanation.
Konrad grinned thoughtfully rubbing his beardless chin. "And all would-be
revolutionaries grow Fasching beards to hide their fright behind.".
"Well, that’s right," Friedrich laughed, "and now you have become a reactionary
conservative. It’s that easy!"
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