Artwork of the Day
With the Artwork of the Day, we connect a piece of visual art to one of the day’s concert programmes. Sometimes the connection is obvious, sometimes it’s surprising or unexpected. Each link invites a fresh perspective - on sound and image, on mood and structure. In this way, we explore how music and visual art can enhance each other in unique ways. After all… early music is museumkunst too, right?
We kick off this series with a work that at first glance seems far removed from early music: Piet Mondriaan’s Composition II with Red, Blue, and Yellow (1930). It’s just one of Mondriaan’s many Compositions, immediately notable for the strict arrangement of lines and colour planes. The canvas consists of a carefully balanced grid of horizontal and vertical lines, within which a few primary coloured rectangles are placed. At first sight, this geometric clarity appears rigid and systematic, yet upon closer inspection, a subtle dynamism emerges: the tension between stillness and movement, order and freedom.
The word composition itself invites reflection. Derived from the Latin componere, meaning “to put together,” it can refer to artworks, texts, musical pieces, and much more. In all cases, it involves the careful arrangement of individual elements, such as lines, words, colors, or notes, into a harmonious whole. The concept of composition thus forms a fundamental link between visual art and music: both create worlds in which order and expression are intertwined.
In the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, we find perfect musical applications of a similar principle as Mondriaan’s. Bach’s Das wohltemperierte Klavier is built on a systematic principle: preludes and fugues in every key. Like Mondriaan, Bach applies a strict structure that leaves no room for chance. Yet within that strictness emerges a richness of expression. The fugues unfold as musical lines interacting with each other, just as Mondriaan’s planes and colors maintain balance.
Both Mondriaan and Bach demonstrate how an apparently rational order can lead to an almost spiritual experience. Their works transcend the purely technical and invite a renewed vision of harmony - in both music and visual art.
Listen to Bach’s complete Wohltemperierte Klavier today, on harpsichord and… viola da gamba!
