FOLLOW US ON:
GET THE NEWSLETTER
CONTACT US
Kurt Schwitters performs ‘Ursonate’: ‘The greatest sound poem of the 20th century’
07.01.2013
02:10 pm
Topics:
Tags:

aa1srettiwchstruk.jpg
Kurt Schwitters, London 1944 - ‘Nine Portraits’

Kurt Schwitters was rebuffed from joining the Berlin Klub-Dada, as he was considered insufficiently political. It was their loss, as Schwitters proved himself to be far more radical and original than anything produced by this political off-shoot of the avant-garde movement.

The rejection disappointed Schwitters, but he was in good company as neither Max Ernst or Jean (Hans) Arp—who had been central figures in the original Zurich Dada group—joined this new Dada political off-shoot. Instead, Hans Arp teamed-up with Schwitters, and the pair collaborated on various projects over the next decade.

In response to his rejection, Schwitters formed his own brand of Dada, which he called Merz—the name lifted from a Hannover bank, “Kommerz und Privat Bank.” Schwitters was influenced by many of Dada’s ideas, in particular he developed some of Arp’s theories about language and the written word.

Arp saw Dada as a constructive force, and defined it as:

“...the primal source of all art. Dada is for the ‘without sense’ of art, which is not to say non-sense. Dada is without sense like nature. Dada is for nature and against art. Dada is direct like nature and tries to find for each its real place.”

 

Hans Arp ‘Dada Sprüche.’
 
Arp produced a series of poems where words and phrases were placed together not for their semantic message, but for the possibility in creating sensation through their associate sounds.

the nightbirds carry burning lanterns in the beams of
their eyes. they steer delicate ghosts and ride on wagons
with delicate veins.

Like his paintings and drawings, Arp’s poetry developed organically. His intention was to restore a sense of wonder to the world through sound.

Schwitters, on the other hand, broke language down into individual words and letters, with which he created early examples of Concrete Poetry. His aim was to create a new form of expression.
 
More on Kurt Schwitters and his ‘Ursonate’ sonata after the jump…

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
|
07.01.2013
02:10 pm
|