“[Wassily] Kandinsky’s endeavor to reduce painting to its innate basic principles had led him, in 1909, to the creation of his first abstract painting, which he regarded as an equivalent to musical compositions. Sounds, like pure colors, were seen to be expression of an absolute spirit. However, the time dimension of music could only be insufficiently captured in the static, two-dimensional frame of a painting. Hence his move into “stage-compositions,” the first of which, The Yellow Sound, was published in 1912.”

—G’nter Berghaus, from Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-Garde, 2005.