On The Easel - February 2012

Scene 3 Erwartung Series

The Erwartung Series started in October is nearing completion with just the last and final Scene to complete.  The painting featured here (actually just 'off the easel') is Scene 3, in which the woman encounters what she believes to be a figure dancing in the moonlight.

The text for Erwartung was written by Marie Pappenheim, a young medical student, in response to a commision from Schoenberg.  A clearly disturbing work which has been linked to the psychoanalytical case studies of Freud - those of  'Anna O' and 'Dora' - both studies on female hysteria, and Josef Breuer´s 'Studien uber Hysterie' of 1895.

It is fascinating that the text of Erwartung and 'Dora' both include dreams (hallucinations) about the forest - a place of anxiety and mystery.  The woman in Erwartung upon entering the forest sings "An oppressive air attacks me...Like a storm that waits." Within Scene three and in particular Scene 4 the text clearly mentions bright yellow mushrooms 'rising out of the grass like eyes on stalks' which in Freudian symbology are distinctly phallic, although mine are more like bright eyeballs!

What drew me to the work was the haunting music of Schoenberg, the forest at night, the mystery of the lover, the amnesia and hallucinations, and a path on the road to more expressive and creative art.

Expressionist Inspiration from Schoenberg

The music and theme of Erwartung (Expectation), a one act monodrama for soprano and large orchestra composed by Arnold Schoenberg is the inspiration for my current series of paintings.

The music written in 1906 and based on a libretto by Marie Pappenheim, is highly expressionistic and represents Schoenberg's "free atonal" period between 1908 and 1921. The drama takes place between twilight and dawn in and around a forest.  A woman is searching for her lover who it transpires she has murdered.  In Scene 1, the subject of the painting shown here, the woman overcomes her fears and enters the forest on a path.  Painted in acrylics on canvas, the larger square format is new to me (120cm x 120cm).  I am planning to complete the next two scenes in the same format with the final scene possibly in a much larger rectangular format.  I very much look forward to launching and exhibiting the whole new series soon.

For those who wish to hear the music, the Naxos Series of Classical CDs includes a great performance of Erwartung with Robert Craft conducting and the wonderful Berlin born Anja Silja as soprano.  Another exciting piece of expressionist music by Schoenberg is his Five Pieces for Orchestra also from 1909.  Is this another possible series - we'll see!