International conference
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (Second Building, Tilto g. 16, Vilnius)
The year 2011 marks the centenary of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis' death. A century’s span gives a sufficient temporal perspective to ascertain that Čiurlionis’ work reflected the key processes in the history of European music, even though it was rarely performed during his lifetime and most of it remained in the manuscripts and unfinished sketches. At the turn of the 20th century his work represented an intersection of the romantic idiom and the active signs of emerging modernism. The music of Čiurlionis contains many examples of his explorations in the field of cryptology and methods for 'production' of musical material, which opened new vistas for further structural and formal development of this material. Hailing from the sphere of romantic inspirations, his work was visionary, blazing a trail for new music of the 20th century.
The music Čiurlionis composed in Warsaw, Leipzig, Druskininkai, Vilnius and St. Petersburg absorbed the cultural atmosphere of the beginning of the 20th century. He is now regarded as the first classic of Lithuanian music. But the mysteries, signs, vocabulary and ideas of this 'composer of music and paintings' (Olivier Messiaen) remain largely unread to this very day.
In solving the enigma of Čiurlionis the composer, Čiurlionis the painter – his alter ego – often lends a helping hand. Like the musical works of his counterpart, his paintings stem from the world of romantic mysticism and symbolism. As a painter he developed a poetic language and mixed colours from the modern palettes of surrealism and abstractionism with his brush steeped in metaphysics. Čiurlionis used tempera and small sheets of paper to create the vision of a perfect universe – an imaginary Babylon whose limits have exceeded those of the Eurocentric culture.
The four-day conference in Vilnius aims to delineate broad prospects for the future research of Čiurlionis’ work, to revise the existing approaches and employ the latest research as a starting point for achieving a deeper understanding of his work. By discussing the causes of his prophetic insight and artistic intuition in the centennial perspective and with all recent methodologies at hand, this conference encourages to redefine the place of Čiurlionis on the map of the 20th-century culture.
The conference sessions will feature reports by 45 participants – musicologists, art researchers, philosophers and other scholars – from 12 countries including UK, Armenia, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, USA, Poland, France, Russia, Finland, Germany and Lithuania. Each day will start with plenary sessions presented by famous Čiurlionis scholars from various European countries – Prof. Hab. Dr. Vytautas Landsbergis, Dr. Rasa Andriušytė-Žukienė, Prof. Dr. Jonas Bruveris, Prof. Hab. Dr. Gražina Daunoravičienė (Lithuania), Prof. Dr. Eero Tarasti (Finland), Hab. Dr. Jacek Szerszenowicz (Poland) and Prof. Hab. Dr. Hermann Jung (Germany).
The conference is organized by the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and the Lithuanian Composers’ Union in association with the Vilnius Academy of Arts and Lithuanian Culture Research Institute.
Sponsors: Lithuanian Culture Support Foundation, M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, Vytautas Landsbergis Foundation, Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society, International Culture Programme Centre, Vilnius Tourist Information Centre and Convention Bureau. This research was funded by a grant (No. LIT-11019) from the Research Council of Lithuania.
Conference Schedule
For more information please contact
Dr. Rima Povilionienė, Conference Secretary, mob. phone 8 615 97 401, mkc2011@lmta.lt
Conference website http://mkc2011.lmta.lt/
