Art & Music are governed by the same compositional principles! The universal law: exposition, climax, resolution. In music you can hear how the themes and introments are introduced, the genre and style are established... But we go through the same process, when we see a painting! We recognize the overall directions of visual composition -- colors, shapes, masses, we "read" these organizational directions (even the historical frame of reference) in order for to EXPERIENCE the art.
Someone said long ago that architecture is nothing but frozen music and therefore the compositional princles of the fine art are "easy" to see. In theatre directing class I ask students to do what I do myself: draw the straight diagional lines between the corners and see where is the focal point.
Look at the picture above (Dada), if we to draw those two lines from the corners, you discover that they will cross in the middle of the back, where the violine elements are! This is the major artistict statement and the rest of the picture is organized to support this thought ("woman's body as an instrument"). Draw two more lines, horizontal and vertical coming through the center. Now we have several segments of the picture (including several geometrical shapes; triangles, squares and so on), and we can study and compare them.
Oh, harmony loves everything cymmetrical. Why? Because this is how we create the BALANCE. Left side and right side, almost like butterfly's wings! Balance is based on the REPETITION (another fundametal law of beauty). This "mirror" principle (sometimes called "doubling" or "folding") is everywhere: we have two arms, to eyes, two legs (and the lost of one out of the two we consider as ugliness). Why does the nature (and we) loves this duality? Because of the stability -- once something is introduced we want to be sure that we will meet this element again.
But here is the trick -- the symmetrical doesn't means the same! In fact, it's always slightly different -- and in this little DIFFERENCE is the secret of the beauty. That is how the repetition becomes dynamic, evolving, open! Here we go -- the conflict! The heat of the dramatic tention and action!
Wait, Anatoly, wait! What about the climax?
Go to the ART directory!
PS. Actors? Do you think that the laws of dramatic composition are diffrent? Select the monologue, print it and define the three major compositionasl parts (exposition, climax, resolution) -- see SHOWS directory for monologues. Read Acting pages, if you need help.
Come back for new texts -- Use the links for now!
read drama and film section before you read ART pages!
See Art & Film directory!
