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SYMMETRY IN CREATIVE WORK OF
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Abstract: The analysis of musical symmetry has a growing literature, including Riemann’s (1896) theory of harmonic dualism, Lendvai’s axis system (1993), and neo-Riemannian theory. Interesting parallels are found in Washburn and Crowe’s (1988) survey of symmetrical patterns in decorative arts across cultures and historical epochs. Each of the four plane isometries – rotational symmetry, mirror reflection, translation, and glide reflection – has its musical counterpart, including transpositional invariance, real inversion and retrograde, sequence, and ostinato. Čiurlionis’s art has long been studied for alleged instances of musical metaphor. But Čiurlionis’s music after 1904 also suggests an increasingly literal translation from visual principles to musical notation. My paper will show how Čiurlionis’s compositional process was shaped by awareness of symmetrical and other visual principles.
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