Čiurlionis, Mikalojus Konstantinas (EN)

Čiurlionis [cziurli’onis] Mikalojus Konstantinas, *22 September 1875 Senoji Varėna, †10 March 1911 Pustelnik (now Marki near Warsaw), Lithuanian composer, painter, and writer. The eldest of nine children, he grew up in the musical family of a village organist who taught him and his younger siblings the basics of music. He spent his childhood in Druskininkai. As a 14-year-old boy, he was accepted into the court orchestra of Prince Michał Oginski in Plungė [polish Pługiany], where he played the flute. Due to Oginski’s support and financial assistance, Čiurlionis went to Warsaw to continue his education. In 1894–1899 he studied with T. Mierz-Brzezicki, and later with A. Sygietyński (piano) and Z. Noskowski (composition) at the Warsaw Institute of Music. The time spent in Warsaw played an important role in the life and shaping of his creative personality. Closely associated with the Young Poland artistic community, in addition to music he was interested in history, natural sciences, astronomy and philosophy. The works of Mickiewicz were among Čiurlionis’ favourite readings, as well as the late, mystical works of Słowacki – as one of his most important sources of inspiration. In 1901–1902 he continued his musical education at the Leipzig Conservatory with S. Jadassohn and C. Reinecke. Upon his return to Warsaw, he attended the drawing school of J. Kauzik, and in 1904 began his studies, his teachers being K. Krzyżanowski (portrait), K. Tiche (applied art) and F. Ruszczyc (landscape) at the newly established School of Fine Arts headed by K. Stabrowski. He took part in the open-air workshops organised by this university in Istebna, Arkadia. He was a frequent guest at the salon of the Stabrowski family with A. Górski, Z. Przesmycki, T. Miciński, B. Leśmian, and others. His patrons and friends included the Markiewicz, Wolman and Morawski families. The close friendship connected Čiurlionis and Eugene Morawski. They played music together, corresponded lively, exchanged musical ideas and inspirations (he dedicated his symphonic poem In the Forest to him), and travelled, for example, to the Crimea and the Caucasus. With financial support from the Wolman family, he visited Prague, Vienna, Nuremberg, Dresden, and Munich in 1906.

From the time he spent in Warsaw, Lithuanian matters became more and more important to the artist. He established contact with the Lithuanian Mutual Aid Society and became involved in running the choir associated with it. The further fate of Čiurlionis, however, was determined by his participation in the First Exhibition of Lithuanian Art in Vilnius. From the end of 1907, he resided in this city permanently. He became actively involved in the Lithuanian national cultural movement. His participation in the Lithuanian Art Society (he was a co-founder and member) resulted in the establishment of the committee for collecting and notating songs of the Lithuanian Science Society. In 1908 Čiurlionis co-founded the Second Exhibition of Lithuanian Art (designed prints, exhibited his own works), and also led the premiere of his diploma piece, the cantata De profundis. That year he also directed the “Vilnius Kanklės” choir, gave music lessons, and painted the curtain for the headquarters of the “Rúta” society. At the beginning of 1909, he married the writer and poet Sofija Kymantaité, a graduate of the Jagiellonian University, who taught him Lithuanian. They began work together on the first Lithuanian opera based on the native myth about Jūratė, goddess of the Baltic Sea, who paid for her love for a mortal fisherman with her annihilation by the god of war, Perkūnas. For the ultimately unfinished work Jūrate remained sketches of the decoration, curtains, and two paintings Lightning and Perkunas (1909). The completed work is the book Lietuvoje [‘in Lithuania’] containing texts mainly by Sofija and layout design by her husband (Vilnius 1910). Čiurlionis, as an artist becoming the epitome of the Lithuanian National Revival based on native folklore, joined actively in the discovery of “what is truly Lithuanian will constitute the uniqueness of this style.” In the Lithuanian landscape he found the archetype of his spiritual homeland. Indeed, his visionary, often fanciful paintings, are based on a real way of imagery connected to his native land.

The years 1907–1909, which saw the flowering of his work as a painter, Čiurlionis divided between stays in Vilnius, Druskininkai, and Saint Petersburg. In the capital of the empire, the artist became close to a grouping of modernist painters from the “Mir iskusstva” [World of Art] circle. His paintings were more and more frequently displayed at exhibitions of the Union of Russian Artists. From here, Čiurlionis also sent some of his works to the 13th Exhibition of the Society of Polish Artists “Sztuka” in Krakow. The constant struggle with financial difficulties, as well as the creative process involving enormous physical effort, led to the worsening of Čiurlionis’ health (he suffered a nervous breakdown) and his premature death at the age of 36. F. Ruszczyc, his academic teacher and friend F. Ruszczyc, in his eulogy at Vilnius Rasos Cemetery, emphasised that the Lithuanian artist’s paintings deserved “the synaesthesia of rainbow bridges of sounds and colours, flung from our shores to distant lands.” Another participant of the funeral ceremony called him the guide of his people, the “Spirit King of Lithuania.”

Just ten years after the artist’s sudden death, the Temporary M. K. Čiurlionis Art Gallery opened in Kaunas in 1921. Most of his artistic legacy (paintings, drawings, sketchbooks, graphics, scores, photographs, letters, articles, and prose poems) became the foundation, a fascinating treasure in the collection of today’s National Museum of Art named after him (Nacionalinis M.K. Čiurlionio Dailes Muziejus) in Kaunas. Moreover, since the 1960s, his memorial museum has also been open in the artist’s family home in Druskininkai, located at the M.K. Čiurlionio Street 35.

Čiurlionis was as gifted in painting as he was in composing. He claimed that “[…] there are no boundaries between the arts. Music combines poetry and painting and has its own architecture. Painting can also have its own architecture and colours express sounds in music.” The artist, motivated by the idea of the correspondence of the arts, originally aimed for a synthesis of painting and music in his works. The idea of transforming musical qualities into plastic ones, already known to the Romantics, resulted in the Secessionist style of the Art Nouveau era in Čiurlionis’ work. In addition to Čiurlionis’ posthumous exhibitions in Saint Petersburg, Moscow between 1911 and 1919, his paintings were presented with works by artists from the “Art World”’ group, as early as 1910, at the exhibition Les Artistes Russes and Decors et Costumes de Théatre et Tableau in Paris, and also in 1912 in London at the Second Post-Impressionist Exhibition. During the Soviet era, the public display of the artist’s work was severely restricted to the detriment of the European reception of his work. However, it was possible to present his musical and painting output quite unexpectedly in West Berlin in 1979. The first research into the work of this great artist and visionary outside of Lithuania under the Soviet Occupation was presented in 1949 at a conference of UNESCO art historians, when A. Rannit proclaimed him a symbolist, precursor of surrealism, abstractionism, and metaphysical painting. In Vilnius, the first text related to Čiurlionis’ work was published in print by Vytautas Landsbergis in 1956, his later main researcher.

Musical training expanded Čiurlionis’ artistic possibilities, giving them a distinct character. At the same time, the more he devoted himself to painting, the more his musical technique evolved. The evolution of his creative assumptions is most clearly demonstrated in his piano works, especially the preludes, which were written at every stage of his musical career, and which represent the largest group of works in his compositional legacy. During the time he spent in Warsaw (1896–1904), Fryderyk Chopin particularly in terms of his interest in folklore. This impact was reflected in his choice of musical genres and the piano repertoire he performed. In 1904–1909, Čiurlionis following a Romanticism aesthetic, by breaking traditional melodic-thematic thinking, developed a new way of constructing melodics on a kind of serial basis (4-, 6-, 7- and 9-tone series). The ostinato form, the exploration of rhythmicity (polyrhythmic), tonality (polytonality) and texture, and the processing of folklore brought Čiurlionis’ work closer to Bartók. He drew the attention of young composers to the artistic value of old Lithuanian folk melodies (article from 1910). His arrangements of folk songs for mixed or children’s choir can be considered exemplary. Symphonic poem Miške is the first orchestral work in the history of professional Lithuanian music. Symphonic music from the late Romantic period is also represented by its largest work, the symphonic poem Jūra.

Along with composing, Čiurlionis was concerned with writing and with the activity he loved the most – painting. Since 1904, his dialogue between painting and music has been marked by evocative, almost abstract “landscapes of imagination”. These subtle and moody works, inspired by nature, the world of myths, fairy tales, philosophy, and Lithuanian folklore, convey the transposition of musical ideas into a visual work in an original way. Among the paintings characterised by the heightened intensity of the precursor painterly explorations are works with titles using musical terminology, such as preludes, fugues, fantasies and cyclic, three- and four-part painting sonatas from 1907–1909, bearing terms corresponding to the classical form of the sonata cycle: (Sonata of the Sun, Sonata of the Spring, Sonata of the Serpent, Sonata of the Sea, Sonata of the Summer, Sonata of the Stars i Sonata of the Pyramids), annotated with terms corresponding to the classical form of the sonata cycle: Allegro — Andante — Scherzo — Finale. Čiurlionis was the first to attempt on such a large scale to realise the temporal principle of developing a visual form, creating the idea of a pictorial space evolving in time, including through the arrangement of individual paintings within a cycle. The overlapping plans here remain in mutual relationship with each other, create complex rhythmic structures, and dynamise the form similar to the logic of the construction of musical pieces. Simultaneously, alongside the parallel interpretation according to the principles of polyphony, the counterpoint of “musical overtones”, which characterise all the artist’s paintings in relation to his own musical compositions – he did not avoid stylised elements from folk music and artistic affinities. Especially in his sketchbooks, we find numerous signs of this that incorporate realistic themes and landscape motifs, including the famous Lithuanian wayside and cemetery crosses. His sketches of still or life drawing, but also copies, indicate his familiarity with the art of J. Matejko. But it was especially Matejko’s brilliant student, S. Wyspiański, who impressed him with the wide and diverse range of his talents.

Despite his short life, Čiurlionis left around 300 musical works, a similar number of drawings and sketches, 60 prints, 250 paintings (mainly tempera and pastels). Only three piano pieces and a small collection of arrangements of folk songs for children’s choir (1909) were published during his lifetime – at the time he was more highly regarded as a symbolist painter than as a composer. His work as a painter, even if not always, met with understanding, and was an important factor in the development of the art of the Russian modernists (V. Kandinsky, A. Benois, M. Gorky, A. Scriabin, and others). Nowadays thanks to editions from the end of the 20th century, we are also becoming more fully acquainted with his verbal works (prose poems, articles and writings, epistolary legacy), especially those written in Polish (in the late 1920s they were brought to Kaunas, purchased in Warsaw by the Lithuanian government). An important source of information on Polish culture at the turn of the century, is the correspondence of Čiurlionis, who maintained contact with Polish poets, artists, and musicians, including T. Miciński, S. Wyrzykowski, F. Ruszczyc, K. Stabrowski, W. Jurgielewicz, K. Krzyżanowski, T. Pruszkowski, E. Morawski, W. Landowska, Z. Noskowski, and A. Sygietyński. Particularly interesting are the letters addressed to his beloved brother Pavel, also a musically talented student at the Warsaw Institute of Music. They are an extremely valuable source of information on the life and works of the older brother.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in interest in the artist’s compositional work. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Čiurlionis’ birth, a concert dedicated to his memory was held at the Academy of Music in Warsaw. The “Warsaw period” in the life of the painter and composer is also commemorated by two plaques: on a tenement house at the Żurawia Street 45, Čiurlionis lived here from 1905–1907) and on a building in Pustelnik, where he died. Noteworthy is also the monographic concert on 5 October 1995 on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the composer’s birth. Lithuanian artists performed at the Museum of John Paul II Collection with the participation of the most eminent expert on the composer’s work, V. Landsbergis. An exhibition of photographs and reproductions of works dedicated to the life and work of Čiurlionis took place in the Historical Museum of Warsaw between 16 July and 22 September 1996. To commemorate the 125th anniversary of the composer’s birth, a concert was held at the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Museum of Polish Emigration in the Royal Łazienki Park on September 19, 2000, thanks to the M.K. Čiurlionis Cultural and Scientific Society. The following year, a large exhibition of paintings by this outstanding artist was held at the National Museum in Warsaw, well organised by museum workers from Kaunas and employees of the MNW. Then his artistic legacy was presented at the Silesian Museum in Katowice (2006) and in Poznań (2007). “Lithuanian tone” in Čiurlionis’ work found its fullest resonance in Poland in connection with the 170th anniversary of the artist’s birth, as part of the “Lithuania in Krakow” project. The exhibition, organised from 15 October 2015 to 31 January 2016, at the International Cultural Centre (Market Square 25) in conjunction with the National Art Museum in Kaunas, under the patronage of the Lithuanian artist, was a wonderful tribute to his creative engagements. The borrowed items, photographs, documents, sketchbooks, paintings, and drawings, which were hosted in the capital of Malopolska for the first time, fostered reflection on the common heritage and at the same time became, as the exhibition catalogue reads, “an important part for Polish-Lithuanian dialogue”. A very important publication, which has contributed to its strengthening, is still the scientific catalogue, which was prepared for 10 years and published in Vilnius in 2007.

Editions: a selection of piano, choral and organ works, 7 notebooks, published by S. Szimkus, Kaunas 1925; piano compositions and folk song arrangement, 4 Volumes, published by J. Čiurlionyte, Vilnius 1957–65; symphonic poem Jūra, published by E. Balsys, Moscow 1965; symphonic poem Miške, Leningrad 1975; Izbrannyje proizwiedienija dla fortepiano, Leningrad 1975, 2nd Edition 1980; Album per pianoforte, Krakow 1978; Sejau rūtą (‘siałem rutę’), Kaunas 1981; Rinktiniai chorai a cappella (‘selected works for a cappella choir’), Leningrad 1983; Iš eskizu fortepijonui (‘sketches for piano’), Vilnius 1985; Kuriniai fortepijonui (‘piano works’), Vilnius 1990.

Literature: – life and works: M. K. Čiurlionis Apie muziką ir dailę. Laiškai, užrašai ir straipsniai (‘about music and art; letters, notes, articles’), Vilnius 1960; M.K. Čiurlionis Laiškai Sofijai (‘letters to Sofia’), Vilnius 1973; V. Čiurlionyte-Karužiene, S.E. Juodis, V. Žukas Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. Bibliography, Vilnius 1970 (includes more than 3000 items published in 27 languages); N. Worobiow Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis. Der litauische Maler und Musiker, Kaunas 1938; J. Gaudrimas, A. Savickas Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, Vilnius 1965, 2nd Edition 1974, translation into Russian Vilnius 1965, 2nd Edition 1974; V. Landsbergis Pavasario sonata, Vilnius 1965, translation into Russian Sonata wiesny, Leningrad 1971, addendum under the title Tworczestwo Čiurlionisa, Leningrad 1975; J. Čiurlionyte Atsiminimai apie Mikalojus Konstaninas Čiurlionis, Vilnius 1970, 2nd Edition 1973, translation into Russian Wospominanija o M.K. Čiurlionis, Vilnius 1975; M. Etkind Mir kak bolszaja simfonija. Kniga o chudożnikie Čiurlionis, Leningrad 1970; E. Mezelajtis, A. Savickas, Mir Čiurlionisa, Moscow 1971; G. Vaitkunas Mikalojus Konstaninas Čiurlionis, translation into German by E. Danner, Dresden 1975; 120. rocznica urodzin Mikalojusa Konstaninasa Čiurlionisa, “Lithuania” 1995 No. 3; J. Siedlecka Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis 1875–1911. Preludium warszawskie, Warsaw 1996; M.K. Čiurlionis Żodzio kúrtba (collection of verbal works), study V. Landsbergis, Vilnius 1997; Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis: twórczość, osobowość, środowisko, katalog wystawy, Kaunas-Warsaw 2001; Atsiminimai apie Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, red. V.B. Psibilskis, Vilnius 2006; Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis: litewski malarz i kompozytor, katalog wystawy, Katowice 2006; R. Okulicz-Kozaryn Litwin wśród spadkobierców Króla-Ducha. Twórczość Čiurlionisa wobec Młodej Polski, Poznań 2007; M. K. Čiurlionis Spraipsniai, red. V. Landsbergis, Vilnius 2013; W. Kozłowska-Mond Angelus Domini and Offering by Čiurlionis: Research into the Picturesqueness of Music and Musicality of Painting, published in Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911): jo laika sir musu laikas, Vilnius 2013; R. Okulicz-Kozaryn Między brulionem a wszechsztuką, Wokół poezji Mikalojusa Konstantinasa Čiurlionisa, published in M.K. Čiurlionis. Litewska opowieść, exhibition catalogue, Krakow 2015 

Literature – music: J. Čiurlionyte Muzykalnoje tworczestwo M. Čiurlionisa, “Sowietskaja Muzyka” 1956 No. 6; J. Čiurlionyte Mikalojus Konstaninas Čiurlionis ir liaudies daina (‘Mikalojus Konstaninas Čiurlionis and folk song’), published in Mikalojus Konstaninas Čiurlionis. Pieśni ludowe na chór i fortepian, Vilnius 1959; V. Landsbergis Melodie seryjne w muzyce Mikalojusa Konstaninasa Čiurlionisa, “Muzyka” 1966 No. 3–4; S. Jarociński Setna rocznica urodzin Čiurlionisa (1875–1911), “Ruch Muzyczny” 1975 No. 24; J.A. Zieliński Čiurlionis i jego wizja czasoprzestrzeni, „Sztuka” 1975 No. 5; V. Landsbergis Morze w twórczości Mikalojusa Konstaninasa Čiurlionisa, «Marynistyka w Muzyce» No. 2, materials of the scientific session in Wejherowo 26–27 May 1978, «Prace Specjalne PWSM w Gdańsku» No. 15, 1978; V. Landsbergis Twórczość fortepianowa Mikalojusa Konstaninasa Čiurlionisa, «Muzyka Fortepianowa» III, Gdańsk 1979; V. Landsbergis Čiurlionio muzika, Vilnius 1986, English edition Mikalojus Konstaninas Čiurlionis. Time and Content, translation into English O. Armalyté, Vilnius 1992; E. Tarasti Muzikos ir dailes saveika Mikalojus Konstaninas Čiurlionis kury boje (‘interaction between music and painting in the work of Mikalojus Konstaninas Čiurlionis’), “Muzika” 1987 No. 7; D. Mirka Idea korespondencji w poemacie symfonicznym “Morze” Mikalojusa Konstaninasa Čiurlionisa (także w “Kultūros barai” 1995 No. 8/9) and R. Goštautienė Uwagi o recepcji twórczości Mikalojusa Konstantinasa Čiurlionisa, published in W kręgu muzyki litewskiej. Rozprawy, szkice i materiały, edited by K. Droba, Krakow 1997; G. Kondrotaite Fryderyk Chopin i Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis: próba porównania, published in M.K. Čiurlionis. Litewska opowieść, exhibition catalogue, Krakow 2015

Literature: V. Landsbergis Čiurlionio daile (‘Čiurlionis’ art’), Vilnius 1976; T. Gryglewicz Malarstwo Europy Środkowej 1900–1914. Tendencje modernistyczne i wczesnoawangardowe, Krakow 1992; Čiurlionis. Painter and Composer. Collected Essays and Notes, 1906–1989, edited by S. Goštautas, Vilnius 1994; Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiuslionis: piesiniai, kompoziciju, eskizai, grafika (catalogue of scientific works), edited by M. Mildażyte-Kulikauskiene, Vilnius 2007; N. Żak Wspólnota wyobraźni. Idea syntezy sztuk w kontekście twórczości M.K. Čiurlionisa and V. Mazrimiene Ślady twórczości Sandro Botticellego i Jana Matejki w rysunkach Mikalojusa Konstantinasa Čiurlionisa, published in M.K. Čiurlionis. Litewska opowieść, exhibition catalogue, Krakow 2015.