Peinture

Edison Denissow frees himself from the external constraints imposed by every compositional method, especially the rigour of the twelve-tone technique. The tone-painting element, the play with contrasts and mixtures is at the centre of his interest. Against the background of the musically adapted characteristics of Impressionism described above, this approach brings him closer to painting, from which the concept of Impressionism is borrowed. Denissow's work ‘Peinture’ bears in concentrated form the typical traits of an orchestral technique that characterise many of his works. Edison Denissow was once asked whether his mathematical training helped or hindered him in his work as a composer. His answer was clear: ‘It helps’. Nevertheless, it is demonstrably not mathematics that has had a profound influence on his work, but painting. Denissow says that his musical teachers were the painters. ‘The laws of music and painting are identical. Painting means the depiction of a limited number of elements in two-dimensional space. The painter is always faced with the question of a suitable form - the coordination of the individual elements, their logical arrangement, the rhythm and the avoidance of coincidence are the same elements that composer has to deal with. The closest analogies exist between abstract painting and music. The essential constituent building blocks of a picture are not subject to a thematic plot. (Helmut Peters)