Arnold Böcklin. "Dead island. Isle of the Dead Salvador gave a true picture of the Isle of the Dead

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This version of the painting by Arnold Böcklin is kept in the Hermitage

Rumors that the Hermitage houses a trophy painting from Hitler's collection are exaggerated

There are mysteries that we have to puzzle over from century to century. There are a lot of them in the Hermitage, but even among them the story that stands out is connected with the painting of the famous Swiss symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin “Island of the Dead” - one of the favorite works of Salvador Dali, Sergei Rachmaninoff and... Adolf Hitler.

The plot is based on an ancient myth that the souls of heroes and favorites of the gods find their final refuge on a secluded island washed by the waters of the Styx. The souls of mere mortals are not given such an honor.

The canvas depicts the mythological helmsman Charon, who transports the souls of the dead across the river of death. The island where his boat is heading is a semicircular, amphitheater-like rock, where only cemetery cypress trees grow among the crypts. Actually, that's all. Apart from the fact that this darkly beautiful painting prompted Salvador Dali to write his own canvas, “The True Image of Arnold Böcklin’s “Isle of the Dead” at the Hour of Evening Prayer,” our great composer Rachmaninoff was inspired by the symphonic poem “Isle of the Dead,” and the American science fiction writer Roger Zelazny's novel of the same name.

Böcklin’s painting was repeatedly reflected in cinema, but that was later, and at the beginning of the twentieth century, beautiful German reproductions of “Isle of the Dead” became an obligatory decoration not only of European homes, but also, according to the apt testimony of the artist Petrov-Vodkin, “were scattered to our province and hung in the rooms of advanced youth." Arseny Tarkovsky writes about the painting as an irretrievably gone sign of pre-revolutionary times: “Where is the “Island of the Dead” in a decadent frame?/Where are the plush red sofas?/Where are the photographs of men with mustaches?/Where are the reed airplanes?”

As a standard interior detail with pretensions to sophistication, the reproduction is present in the works of Vladimir Nabokov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Teffi, Ilya Erenburg, and in “The Twelve Chairs” it appears next to the pretentious Madame Gritsatsueva. This is the insanity of the enlightened minds of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. could, following Ilf and Petrov, be considered kitsch, self-parody, if not for the big names of the most ardent fans of the ominous “Island”. It decorated Sigmund Freud's office in Vienna, hung over the bed in Lenin's room in Zurich, and was the subject of Trotsky's admiration. Finally, Hitler was so fascinated by this mystical plot that the painting found a place in his Reich Chancellery. (By the way, nothing like this was common with Stalin. His taste was simpler; he preferred classical opera to symbolist delights).

Hitler generally loved Böcklin, collecting almost two dozen of his paintings. After the war, his “Island of the Dead” moved to the National Gallery in Berlin, where it remains to this day. This is not a reproduction. The fact is that Böcklin painted the picture from 1880 to 1886 in several versions, each time changing the plot, dimensions, execution technique, and color scheme of the image, but maintaining the basis of the composition. The first version is kept in the Basel Museum, the second in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the third, “Hitler’s” - in Berlin, the fourth was bought by Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, but they say it was lost during the Second World War, the fifth is kept in the Leipzig Museum, and finally the sixth is in our Hermitage.

But there is another view. So the head of the sector of painting of the 19th-20th centuries and sculpture of the department of Western European fine art of the State Hermitage, Boris Asvarishch, with whom we met in his office with a wonderful view of the Neva, believes that there were not six, but five paintings. When I ask him to comment on the rumor that in the Hermitage there is a painting from Hitler’s personal collection that ended up here as a trophy, he gets very angry and calls it “bullshit.”

In this chronicle footage, Hitler and Molotov are negotiating against the backdrop of the Berlin version of “Isle of the Dead”

“Around 1900, the painting ‘Isle of the Dead’ was incredibly popular,” explains the art critic. — Böcklin wrote four versions of it. The fifth was written jointly with the artist’s son. In the office, Hitler had one of five options - it seems the third. This painting is kept in the National Gallery in Berlin. The painting, which is in the Hermitage, has nothing to do with Hitler. Obviously, she was brought here by the same son of Böcklin, who was related to Russia (Carlo Böcklin married the daughter of the publisher of Moskovskie Vedomosti, Vladimir Gringmut. - Trud), and she remained here. It was in private hands, and these people transferred it to the Hermitage “for long-term storage with the right to exhibit” - there is a museum term. That's why we're putting it out there. That's the whole story."

To my question about the reasons for the mega-popularity of the Böcklin painting, Boris Asvarishch answered: “When people live well, they really like to talk about death and similar matters. “Island of the Dead” emerged from this interest.” In his article dedicated to Böcklin’s painting, Boris Asvarishch writes: “There was no other author in European life who at first caused so much misunderstanding and irritation, then was deified literally by the entire continent, and immediately after his death was almost instantly consigned to oblivion.”

Böcklin died in 1901. Meanwhile, a documentary footage has been preserved in which Adolf Hitler and Vyacheslav Molotov are negotiating on November 12, 1940 against the backdrop of the “Island of the Dead.” Behind the Fuhrer, a figure in a white chiton is visible in a boat, gaps above the silhouettes of a mountain, the tops of cypress trees...

It is interesting that now the famous painting cannot be seen in St. Petersburg. “Exhibition of Western European painting of the 19th-20th centuries. is moving to the Main Headquarters of the Hermitage,” said Asvarishch. “Part of it has already moved and is open.” The curator promised that the exhibition will be fully open during the summer.

Arnold Böcklin (German Arnold Böcklin; October 16, 1827, Basel, Switzerland - January 16, 1901, San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy) - Swiss painter, graphic artist, sculptor; one of the outstanding representatives of symbolism in European fine art of the 19th century.
Böcklin's paintings, bright and sharp in color, are painted primarily in tempera. Böcklin’s paintings feature a fictional world, often deliberately mysterious. At first, Böcklin painted romantic landscapes with mythological figures, then fantastic scenes with nymphs, sea monsters, etc. (“Triton and Nereid”, 1873-1874).
Later compositions (“Island of the Dead”, 1880, Kunstmuseum, Basel; at the beginning of the 20th century, reproductions from it were very popular), where fantastic symbolism is combined with naturalistic authenticity of details, influenced the formation of German symbolism and Jugendstil.

Death the Horsewoman against the backdrop of an autumn landscape.

Dead island

Island of St. The Island of St. George, or the Island of the Dead, is located near the small town of the Bay of Kotor Perast, famous for its nautical school, to which the Russian Emperor Peter the Great sent the sons of Russian nobles to study maritime affairs. . The Island of the Dead with its cypress grove is very picturesque. It is of natural origin, in contrast to the famous neighboring Island of Our Lady of Rock, which was created artificially.
On the Isle of the Dead is the Benedictine Abbey of St. George, after which the island was named. The abbey was first mentioned in 1166 in documents describing the illumination of the Church of St. Tryphon (St Tryphon) in Kotor. However, according to historians, the ornamentation on the Abbey Church indicates its earlier origin - the 9th century. Old Church of St. Georgy has survived very little. The island was constantly under fire from the invaders. An earthquake in 1667 destroyed the ceiling and apse. Later a simple church was built. The tombstones in the church cemetery represent a unique collection of heraldic emblems. The famous captains of Perast were buried here. The cemetery remained a burial ground until 1866, when a new cemetery was built in the northern part of the city.
At one time, paintings dating from 1327–1457 were kept in the church; the last canvases were painted by Lovro Marinov Dobricevic, a famous painter from Kotor. In the 14th–16th centuries, the Abbey of St. George was under the jurisdiction of Kotor. In 1535, a group of Perast residents killed the Kotor-appointed abbot of the island, thereby achieving independence for the city from Kotor's rule and excommunication from the Catholic Church. In 1571, the pirate Karadoz burned the city to the ground along with the island's Abbey. In 1603, the residents of Perast restored the church. In 1634, the patronage of the island was transferred to the Senate of Venice. It was under Venetian control that Perast reached its highest level of prosperity. In 1812 the Abbey was occupied by the French, and in 1814 by the Austrians. The island of St. George was inspired by the German romanticist and painter Alfred Bocklin to paint his famous painting "Isle of the Dead"¹. The masterpiece depicts a funeral boat approaching the island.
A sad legend is associated with the Island of the Dead, according to which a French soldier, firing a cannon towards Perast, entered the house of his beloved and killed her, and then lay down with her in the coffin. The Island of the Dead is closed for official visits, however, you can often visit it see locals or tourists wanting to touch old walls or wander through an ancient cemetery.


________________
Böcklin has at least six versions of this painting.
The painting shows a boat in which a coffin is installed. Ahead, beyond the Six River, is a huge gloomy island. Giant elms overhang the boat as it slowly sails toward a small jetty roughly hewn out of a small natural bay. On both sides of the island there are burial crypts carved out of solid rock. Even the lonely figure of Charon standing in the boat looks like a corpse covered with a shroud, and it is she who first of all attracts the viewer’s attention. The placement of a straight figure in the center of the picture inevitably draws the eye to the trees and back again, in a continuous angular movement.(Robert Walker)

Salvador Dali - A True Image of the Isle of the Dead by Arnold Böcklin at the Hour of Evening Prayer

Toteninsel, Max Klinger

Giger

* In cemeteries

Mayakovsky " About it":
Wallpaper,
___walls
_______faded...
____________faded...
We were drowning in the gray tones of etching.
From the wall
_____a city has grown
_______________________ Beklin
Moscow set up the "Island of the Dead".

There is a 1945 film of the same name.

This painting in turn inspired Rachmaninov to write an opera. "Dead island".
The symphonic poem was inspired by a black and white reproduction of the painting “Isle of the Dead” by the Swiss symbolist artist Arnold Böcklin, located in the Leipzig Art Gallery. The composer later recalled: “For the first time in Dresden I saw only a copy of Böcklin’s wonderful painting. The massive composition and mystical plot of this picture made a great impression on me, and it determined the atmosphere of the poem. Later in Berlin I saw the original painting. It didn't particularly excite me in color. If I had seen the original first, I might not have composed my “Isle of the Dead.” I like the picture better in black and white.”
The poem "Island of the Dead" was written during his stay in Dresden and completed in 1909. The main motives of the poem: the inevitability of death and the thirst for life. In order to convey the feeling of the movement of waves, Rachmaninov used a rare time signature - five eighths. The approximate duration of the poem is 20-25 minutes. This work is considered a classic example of late Russian romanticism of the early 20th century.

Arnold Böcklin - famous Swiss artist, graphic sculptor. He is one of the most famous representatives of symbolism of the 19th century. Born 1827 in Basel, Switzerland - died 1901 in San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy. His art contains many amazing works, but one of the most remarkable and even iconic is the painting “Island of the Dead,” which was painted in 1880-1886, and one of the versions of which is currently in St. Petersburg.

It was written by Arnold Böcklin in five versions. All five paintings were painted between 1880 and 1886. This painting represents mythological ideas about death and the place where the souls of dead people go. The painting shows a body of water, which is the symbolic River Styx. In the middle of the river there is an island, which is a concave wall and somewhat resembles an amphitheater. This, in fact, is the island of the dead. There are buildings on the island that look like crypts with windows. Cypress trees also grow here, which are considered symbols of death and are often planted in cemeteries.

A boat is approaching the island. Boat with an oarsman - there is a mythological Charon who transports the dead across the River Styx. Charon is dressed in white matter. Besides him, there is another figure in the boat. The passenger of the boat is the soul of a person who is traveling in the other world. The very plot of the picture, its gloomy atmosphere so impressed many viewers and famous people (Max Ernst, Sergei Rachmaninov and many others) that an interpretation of the picture was created in a variety of forms. The famous painting by Salvador Dali is “The True Image of Arnold Böcklin’s “Isle of the Dead” at the Hour of Evening Prayer.” Sergei Rachmaninov wrote a symphonic poem “Island of the Dead”. The painting is mentioned in the novel “The Twelve Chairs” by Ilf and Petrov, and the novel “Mashenka” by Vladimir Nabokov. Science fiction writer Roger Zelazny, inspired by the work, wrote the novel “Island of the Dead.” It is impossible not to mention the fact that the image of the island is often used in the architecture of cemeteries. Two films were made based on the film: the 1945 American film “Island of the Dead” and the Russian collage film “Island of the Dead.” In addition to all of the above, this island is present in the anime “Black Butler” and the manga “The Extraordinary History of Panorama Island”.

Arnold Böcklin - "Island of the Dead"

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In 1827, an artist was born in the Swiss city of Basel, whose work had a huge influence on the development of painting and on culture as a whole. Arnold Böcklin was a household name in the circles of symbolist artists, and Böcklin’s famous painting “Island of the Dead” became a source of inspiration for many influential figures in world art.

Arnold Becklin

The future founder of surrealism was born into the family of a wealthy silk merchant, Christian Friedrich Böcklin. Arnold Böcklin received his art education in Düsseldorf and, despite his unique style and variety of techniques, he is considered to be part of the Düsseldorf School of Painting.

Teachers valued Böcklin as a very promising student and therefore, while still a student, Arnold often traveled abroad, namely to Brussels and Antwerp, where the young artist copied the great works of the Dutch and Flemish masters. Another professional trip during his student years brought Beklin to Paris, where the artist worked at the Louvre for about a year.

In 1850, the artist came to Rome, where the classical architecture, mild climate and rich culture forced him to stay for seven years. In Italy, Beklin married a local girl. They had a large family - 14 children, of whom only six reached adulthood. For various reasons, the artist and his family often moved; he spent some time in Weimar, where he taught painting at the academy. In Basel, Böcklin worked on commission; the artist spent his last years in Italy, at his villa near Florence.

Symbolism and the “Island of the Dead”

At the very beginning of his career, Böcklin painted landscapes and urban architecture. Over time, his work acquired a mythological orientation, but the most famous works of the Swiss painter are classified in the genre of symbolism. However, he also had a strong fascination with landscapes and motifs from classical mythology. For example, Arnold Böcklin's most famous work, “Island of the Dead,” is a painting that is simultaneously a landscape, a mythological subject, and a complex work with complex, heavy symbolism and a considerable number of secrets.

The painting depicts a small island washed by a mirror-like surface of water against the background of a cloudy sky. Tall dark cypress trees grow on the island, and rectangular holes resembling crypts are visible in the rocks. A wide boat with two people in it is heading towards the island. One of the figures is wrapped in white cloth, like a shroud, and stands in front of a white rectangular box that looks like a coffin.

Among the many interpretations, the most popular version is a peculiar play on ancient Greek mythology. According to it, the souls of deceased heroes, chosen ones of the gods and prominent personalities receive a place on a secluded island in the center. The figure in white is often called Charon, the guide to another world.

The theme of death was one of the most frequent in Böcklin’s work. It is noteworthy that before “Island of the Dead,” Arnold Böcklin never gave names to his paintings, but in correspondence with the customer of the first version of the painting, he personally called his work Die Toteninsel. Over the course of several years, the artist painted six versions of the painting, five of which were painted by Böcklin himself, and the sixth he wrote with his son Carlo in the last year of his life.

First option

Becklin received the order for “Island of the Dead” from his patron, philanthropist Alex Gunther. The first version of the painting was painted in the artist’s Florentine studio. Böcklin completed the painting in 1880, but, like Leonardo with La Gioconda, did not want to part with it. The first "Isle of the Dead" remained in the possession of its creator until his death.

Many art historians cite the death of Beklin’s daughter as the reason for such attachment to the painting. The baby died in 1877 and was buried in an English cemetery in the Italian city of Florence. This cemetery is planted with tall cypress trees, in which researchers of the work of the Swiss symbolist perceive similarities with the painting.

"Picture for Dreams"

While working on the first version of the painting, Maria Berna, the wealthy widow of financier Georg von Bern, visited Böcklin's Florentine studio. Probably impressed by the unfinished canvas, the woman ordered a “dream painting” from the artist. For her, Becklin wrote a second version of the “island”, which was smaller in size, written on a wooden panel and made in a different, brighter color scheme.

It is noteworthy that the most mysterious element of the painting “Isle of the Dead,” namely the boat with the figure of Charon, was added to the composition at the request of Maria Berna, who was mourning her husband. Later, Beklin completed the drawing of the boat not only in the second version of the picture, but also in the first.

After the death of the owner of the second version of “Isle of the Dead,” the painting was given to a gallery in the city of Lucerne, from where it was bought by the Gottfried Keller Foundation. Today this famous painting is exhibited in New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Painting for Fritz Gurlit

The third, most popular version of the painting was commissioned by the collector Fritz Gurlit. It, like the first two, was written in Florence and completed in 1883. This is the lightest existing version of the painting. In addition to the lighter colors, the third version of “The Island” is distinguished by its dynamism - the tops of slender cypress trees bend under gusts of wind, and the water surface is no longer so mirror-like.

This version is the most popular due to the fact that it was from this version that Max Klinger made a high-quality etching from which Fritz Gurlitt printed reproductions. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, these reproductions were very popular in Germany, from where the fashion for them came to other countries. Today, the Old National Gallery in Berlin exhibits the original painting in its permanent collection.

Financial difficulties and the fourth version of the picture

A year after completing work on the third version of “Isle of the Dead,” Böcklin’s large family faced financial difficulties, prompting the artist to paint another version of his most sought-after painting, which he sold to the famous collector, Baron Hans Thyssen-Bornemisza de Cason.

Böcklin used copper and oil paints as materials for the fourth version. Unfortunately, this painting could not survive the Second World War and was destroyed, presumably in Berlin or Rotterdam. All that was left was a black and white photograph of her.

Canvas for the Museum of Fine Arts in Leipzig

Two years later, Beklin returned to “Island of the Dead” again. The painting was commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts of the German city of Leipzig. It is noteworthy that this time the artist chose tempera over oil paints.

In the fifth picture, the rower is clearly visible guiding the boat towards the island, and the boat itself is much closer to the goal compared to the other four options. Interestingly, while the basic composition of Isle of the Dead remains the same, each version has slightly different details. The color scheme of the six paintings is also different.

Painting “Island of the Dead” in the Hermitage

The sixth version of the painting by Arnold Böcklin, located in a private collection, but exhibited in the St. Petersburg Hermitage, is the least known. Probably because almost five years passed between the writing of the fifth and sixth versions of “Isle of the Dead”. Interestingly, Böcklin co-wrote this version with his son Carlo in the last year of his life.

Cultural phenomenon of its time

By a strange coincidence, it was this painting by Böcklin that became a cult work of its time. It is “Island of the Dead” that is the painting that brought fame to its author during his lifetime. In certain cultural circles, Böcklin was practically deified, calling him “the Michelangelo of the modern era.”

According to contemporaries, “Island of the Dead” is a painting that was an integral part of the interior of both advanced youth and cultural intelligentsia, and the provincial outback of the early 20th century.

Reproductions of the third version of the painting scattered throughout Europe. The greatest cultural and historical figures were fans of Böcklin’s work, namely “Isle of the Dead”. Apollinaire, Clemenceau, Freud, Dali, Kandinsky and Rachmaninov were amazed by the magical atmosphere of the painting and its influence on the audience. The third version was purchased by Adolf Hitler and hung in the Reich Chancellery.

“Isle of the Dead” is a painting that has become a source of inspiration for many other works of art, both in painting and in music, cinema, poetry and sculpture.

The other day, quite by accident, in the State Hermitage I came across the “Island of the Dead”. Surprised is an understatement. I had the pleasure of directly observing three of the “canonical” five versions of the painting; I did not even suspect the existence of the sixth, which came to the Hermitage from a private collection (few people even suspect about it, and Wikipedia is silent about it).

This “happy meeting” prompted me to create a post.

The name of Arnold Böcklin, a great European symbolist artist, which once thundered throughout the Old World, is now undeservedly forgotten. "Die Toteninsel" ("Island of the Dead") is the main and most famous of his paintings, a kind of icon of symbolism.

The first version of “The Island” was painted by the artist commissioned by philanthropist Alexander Gunther in 1880. The plot of the film is based on an ancient myth that the souls of heroes and favorites of the gods find their final refuge on a secluded island washed by the waters of the Styx (or Acheron). The boatman Charon transports the souls of the dead across the river.

May 1880. Das Kunstmuseum Basel

In 1877, the artist’s seven-month-old daughter Maria Anna died, and the girl was buried in the English Cemetery in Florence. Many researchers of Beklin’s work believe that it was this cemetery that became the prototype of “The Island”.

English Cemetery in Piazza Donatello, Florence

Some note its similarity to the Greek Pontikonisi (the so-called “Mouse Island”). Böcklin visited Corfu, and Pontikonisi could indeed serve as a model for the picture.

Pontikonisi Island (Pantokrator Monastery), Greece

The painting was not yet completed when the artist received an order from the young widow Maria Berna for "Bild zum Träumen" ("picture for dreams"). It is assumed that she saw the unfinished "first island" and ordered a copy of it with minor changes. After the death of Maria Berna, her heirs sold the painting to the Fischer Gallery in Lucerne, and in 1926 it ended up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains to this day.

June 1880. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Like the first two versions of the painting, the third was painted in Florence. It was made in 1883 by order of the Berlin collector and publisher Fritz Gurlitt. It is from this that Max Klinger makes an etching, and the Gurlitt publishing house produces excellent quality reproductions in huge editions, which are sold all over the world.

1883. Die Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

So at the beginning of the last century, “The Island” could be found in the interior of every second European apartment. And according to Petrov-Vodkin, reproductions from the painting “were scattered throughout our province and hung in the rooms of progressive youth.”

Max Klinger. Dead island. Etching. 1890.

“Island of the Dead” decorated Sigmund Freud’s office in Vienna and hung above the bed in Lenin’s room in Zurich. Nabokov mentions the reproduction of “The Island” as a standard one for interior design in “Mashenka” and “Despair”; it also appears in the room of the fortune teller to whom Madame Gritsatsueva comes in “The Twelve Chairs” by Ilf and Petrov:

Above the piano hung a reproduction of Böcklin’s painting “Isle of the Dead” in a fancy frame of dark green polished oak, under glass. One corner of the glass had long since fallen off, and the naked part of the picture was so covered with flies that it completely merged with the frame. It was no longer possible to find out what was going on in this part of the island of the dead.

Photograph of Ilyich's Swiss home (Isaac McBride "Barbarous Soviet Russia", 1920) - on the wall above the bed is the same "Island" (The image is small and of poor quality, so take my word for it :))

The third version of the painting is also known for the fact that in 1933 it was acquired by... ta-daam! ... Adolf Hitler, who was a great admirer of Böcklin and owned a total of 16 of his works. A photograph has survived in which Hitler and Molotov are negotiating in front of the painting.
After the war, she moved from the Reich Chancellery to the National Gallery in Berlin, and remains there to this day.

A. Hitler (on the right, with a mustache and without glasses) and V. Molotov (on the left, with a mustache and glasses) on November 12, 1940 in Berlin. If you look closely, you can recognize the “third island” behind the Fuhrer (a white figure in a boat, silhouettes of mountains and the tops of cypress trees against the sky are clearly visible).

In 1884, financial difficulties prompted the artist to create a fourth version of the painting, which was bought by Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. Unfortunately, during the Second World War the painting was lost; only a black and white photograph of it was preserved:

The artist painted “The Island” for the fifth time in 1886 for the Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts (it is noteworthy that this time the picture was painted not in oil, but in tempera).

1886. Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig

And in 1901, together with his son Carlo, he finished the sixth! version of the painting (the same one that is now in our Hermitage). I finally stopped at six :)
To Beklin’s credit, he did not copy the painting, but each time he developed the plot in a new way, maintaining the basis of the composition, but changing the size, technique, and color scheme.

1901. State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

It is known that the late Beklin had a great influence on the development of surrealism and mystical realism in painting. The pioneer of surrealism in poetry, Guillaume Apollinaire, put “The Island” on a par with the Venus de Milo, Mona Lisa and the frescoes of the Sistine Chapel; the creator of metaphysical painting, Giorgio de Chirico, counted Böcklin among his teachers, Böcklin’s influence was recognized by Max Ernst, and Salvador Dali expressed his respect to him in the painting “The True Image of Arnold Böcklin’s “Island of the Dead” at the Hour of Evening Prayer.”

Salvador Dali. A true depiction of Arnold Böcklin's "Isle of the Dead" at the hour of evening prayer. 1932.

Impressed by a black and white reproduction of a painting seen in Leipzig in 1908, Sergei Rachmaninov wrote a symphonic poem “Island of the Dead,” which he dedicated to Nikolai Struve. Rachmaninov chooses a rather unusual musical time signature for his poem - 5/8 (like the Gregorian Dies Irae) - so someone in it hears human breathing, others hear waves rolling onto the shore, or Charon’s rhythmically raking oars. In general, “total immersion” is guaranteed, I recommend it!