The life of Emil Nolde runs perfectly parallel with Portrait of a Clown.  He was actually born by the name of Emil Hansen in August, 1867, but changed his last name later in life to that of the town in which he was born, Nolde.  Nolde can be found in Germany, near the Danish Border.  He actually began his professional career not as an artist, but as an apprentice wood carver while also doubling as a draughtsman.  He took evening classes at an arts and crafts school, and this is where he actually began developing as an artist.  Nolde loved to hike, and gained a great deal of success with painting mountain scenery for a postcard company.  This part of Nolde’s life could be considered his A section.  It was light and carefree, very much like his painting of Wildly Dancing Children.  His walks in the mountains show just how much he loved life and nature.
 

Nolde’s success continued for several decades until the Third Reich began taking control of Germany.  His paintings were confiscated and hung in an exhibition called Entartete Kunst, Degenerate Art.  Beginning in 1941, Nolde was not allowed to paint at all, for fear of what might happen to him.  This B section of his life was very different from his A section.  His life was no longer light and carefree.  He carried around a horrible weight that kept him from doing what he loved.  He lived a very melancholy life under the Third Reich, but even under that oppression, a little light shown through.  Secretly, Nolde painted small scale water colours, which he called, “unpainted pictures.”  This little glimmer of hope fainlly was allowed to shine through when the Nazis were overthrown.
 

Nolde’s life then returned to the light and carefree existence that he once knew, with a few additions.  Nolde was free to paint again without any restrictions, and so it was very much again like during the A section of his life, but just like everything in life, it was not exactly the same.  This time around, Nolde received many awards and honors.  Even though his production during this portion of his life was not as great, it probably felt even more grand than his first A section because he had just come out of a very harsh time in his life.  The return to happiness was then accentuated by the B section.  Nolde continued the renewed A section of his life until his death in 1956.

This painting is very different in nature from the two pieces chosen for the A sections.  The other two paintings have a very clear subject, a definite form with a definite purpose, but Marc Rothko’s painting shares none of those traits.  Untitled was inspired by the concept of automatic-writing.  What this concept entails is that the artist just steps in front of a piece of canvas without any clear idea of what is going to happen.  S/he puts the paint brush/pencil up to the canvas and allows the unconscious mind to take over and present an image that illustrates what it feels.  Compared to the two paintings for the A sections, which have identifiable images, this work has no identifiable image.  An onlooker can see anything s/he wants out of the unconscious results of the painting.  Wildly Dancing Children and Cows Released in Spring only allow the onlooker to see children dancing, and cows dancing.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s life very much resembles the form of Portrait of a Clown as well.  In the early years of his career in Germany (A section), Kirchner and some of his fellow art students formed the art society, Brucke, which just so happened to support Emil Nolde’s work.  Unlike Nolde though, Kirchner’s B section lasted much longer and was frought with a great amount of difficulties.  His art school closed, Brucke broke up, and he had a nervous break down while serving in the first world war.  The A section returned with a great amount of success for Kirchner.  In 1918 he moved to a mountain farm in Switzerland and painted mostly mountain scenes.  This is the point in his life when he painted Cows Released in Spring.  He was featured at many exhibits and was commissioned to paint murals in the Folkwang Museum.  Unfortunately though, Kirchner’s life does not end as happy as Nolde’s did.  When the Third Reich came into power, his art was also featured in the Entartete Kunst exhibit, and he committed suicide a year later.

To create his work, Nolde used short brush strokes to create his work.  Even though the painting is made up of several individual, small strokes, the painting has a definite form that one can see, and that is of children dancing and playing.  Look at the music for Portrait of a Clown, how do Nolde’s brush strokes correspond to Ticheli’s staccato notes? 

In the B section, Ticheli changes the style of the notes.  What is different about the below excerpt, than from the first excerpt? (Look at the articulations)

Write out the counting for the above theme.
 

Marc Rothko used smooth, continuous lines to create his piece of art.  How does this relate to Ticheli’s above excerpt?  Would the music have the same affect if Rothko would have used short brush strokes like Nolde? 

Melody A
 

Melody A appears several times throughout the piece:
 

mm. 9-16 ~ flutes and oboes

Melody B is much more mellow than Melody A.  Not only is the articulation subdued with slurs, but the dynamics do not change as much as they do in Melody A.  The dynamics remain pretty consistent all the way through.
 

Melody B even contains a short counter motive.
 

The counter motive appears wherever Melody B appears:
 

Wildly Dancing Children - Emil Nolde

Nolde used a variety of colors in his painting.  What feelings does it evoke for you? (Does it make you happy or sad?  Does this piece put you in a good mood?  Would you rather look at this than the Rothko piece?)
 

In the beginning of Ticheli’s piece, he uses all the instruments in the band.  Each instrument has its own timbre, or sound color.  Ticheli used all of the different instruments at once in order to bring out the rich color of the band.  What feelings do you feel during the first part of Portrait of a Clown?
 

Untitled ­ Marc Rothko

In stark contrast to the Nolde piece, Rothko’s barely uses color.  He chose to use shades of black in order to portray his feelings.  In the same respect, Ticheli used minor chords to evoke a darker color from the band.  Ticheli also used fewer instruments, just as Rothko used fewer colors.  Does this part in the music (B section) make you feel different than when you heard the music for the A section?

Assessment

1. Students can search for other contrasting works of art that can portray the contrasting sections present in Portrait of a Clown.  Students can write short essay's describing their findings.
2. Students can compare and contrast other musical pieces in ABA form, describing the similarities and differences between each piece.
3. On a written test, students could be asked to describe the differences between the sections of this or another assigned musical work.