Konrad and Alexandra (pdf) - Rolf Gross

sexual arousal, dance rhythms, and overheated colors.
Kandinsky watched silently.
"What is this music?" asked Claudia, wide-eyed.
"Negermusik, Negro music. A friend brought me these recordings from America. The
Negroes use this kind of spontaneously improvised music at weddings, dances, and funerals.
To their ears it is highly spiritual."
"And what is that brassy instrument? I have never heard a sound like that."
"It is a saxophone, a reed instrument."
Alexandra was still trying to calm her emotions. Her mind held an image that was still
gyrating and pulsing as she looked at Kandinsky’s canvas.
"And Alexandra, did you see this music?"
"I have not recovered from it yet, your whole canvas is dancing."
Kandinsky beamed. "This music is so much more spiritual and passionate than
Schoenberg or Webern. Maybe one day I will paint their dry, minimal compositions. For the
time being this Negro music has me off my feet. I call my painting Komposition VII, because I
recomposed this music on canvas. I am so pleased that you see it, none of my acquaintances
and critics seem to able to do that."
He waved his arms. "Rarely have I worked so hard as for Komposition VII. I have yet to
exhaust what I hear in this piece. You know, this music is not ‘composed,’ the musicians
cannot even read notes, they play spontaneously and intuitively. Is this drummer not
fabulous?"
Kandinsky got up and arranged five large canvasses next to each other along the wall.
Expectantly he stood aside, left hand on the last painting, his right in his vest in the
Napoleonesque stance Alexandra remembered so well. The tea in the suddenly absurdly
delicate Meissen service was getting cold, the torte was untouched.
He swept his hand over the paintings. "These are all different aspects of the piece I
played for you. Can you see it?"
Clara spoke up. "I have seen some of your earlier ‘abstracts’ and came away with the
impression that they were painted entirely at random, random lines, random colors. To my
amazement I now see that you planned every spot, every color, and every form carefully.
Some repeat themselves from painting to painting, some are added, others have been left out."
She got up and pointed at the features she meant.
A painful smile on his face Kandinsky admitted. "Unfortunately, you are correct, these
paintings are carefully planned. I have to use my head, trying this, trying that, changing a
shape or a color to compose what I want. I paint with my intellect instead of my emotions or my
subconscious as these musicians seem to be able to."
Clara shook her head. "These pieces are an impressive achievement in exploring a new
way of painting. The time and labor you must have spent in painting these large canvasses!"
Kandinsky took his right hand out of his jacket and made a dismissive gesture. "Oh,
once I see what I want, the process is quite fast. I finished these five variations of Komposition
VII in less than three weeks."
Clara asked whether he would show them selected examples of the paintings that
preceded Komposition VII.
"Let me first show you the last version of Komposition VII. It hangs in the next room, a
canvas of two by three meters, too big to carry around."
336