SOUNDS AND IMAGES (1)
Fading bells -
now musky blossoms
peal in dusk.
Basho (1644-94)
METAPHOR/SIMILE/COMPARISON
Such stillness -
the shrill of a cicada
pierces rock.
Basho (1644-94)
METAPHOR/SIMILE/COMPARISON
Insect song - over
winter's garden
moon's hair thin.
Basho (1644-94)
METAPHOR/SIMILE/COMPARISON
MelemeTekete
Meleme Tekete
motion/rest
form (shape)
size
intensity
brightness
number
unity
solidity
Aristotle De Anima III (384–322 BC)
COMMON SENSIBLES
“Line, mass and color … a common basis for
all the arts”
--- Arthur Dow, O’Keefe’s teacher
Georgia O’Keefe Music – Pink and Blue II (1919)
Paul Klee: Fugue in Red (1921)
paul klee (1879-1940) – castle and sun [20 IN X 23 IN, OIL ON CANVAS 1928]
paul klee (1879-1940) – the twittering machine [25.25 in × 19 in, Watercolor and ink; oil transfer on paper with gouache and ink 1922]
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) – Broadway Boogie-Woogie [50 IN X 50 IN, OIL ON CANVAS, 1942-43]
Wassily Kandinsky (1866 – 1944)
Composition Eight (1922)
Quiet Harmony (1924)
• yellow
• “warm,” “cheeky and exciting,” “disturbing for people,” “typical earthly color,” “compared with the mood of a person it could have the effect of representing madness in color [...] an attack of rage, blind madness, maniacal rage.
• loud, sharp trumpets, high fanfares
• blue • deep, inner, supernatural, peaceful “Sinking
towards black, it has the overtone of a mourning that is not human.” “typical heavenly color”
• light blue: flute darker blue: cello darkest blue of all: organ
Sound-Visual Connections/Instruments1704 Isaac Newton 7-note color scale in Optiks
1742 Louis Bertrand Castel: clavecin oculaire: harpsichord for the eyes, or light-organ.
Harpsichord with candles.Telemann composed for it.
12 color hues and 12-note scale. Also varied by value (light and dark) for octaves. C: blue; E:
yellow; G: red
R O Y G B I Vobserved a correspondence between the proportionate width of the seven prismatic rays and the string lengths required to produce the
musical scale D, E, F, G, A, B, C.
12 color/note scalesky blue (C), celadon, green, olive, yellow, fallow, nacarat,
red (G), carmine, violet, agate and violaceous
(colored-glass pane lit by candles with reflecting mirrors)
Synaesthesia ?
1876 Bainbridge Bishop created The Color Organ Colored light projected with notes – P.T. Barnum
C - red; G - green/blue
• 1893 British painter Alexander Wallace Rimington invented the Clavier à lumières (electrical/silent). The registral placement of colors was directly proportional to saturation, i.e., higher octaves contained more white light.
1920s Thomas Wilfred (Danish) created the Clavilux for home use: silent random imagery. Provided
RT control over form, motion and color.
1911 Scriabin's synaesthetic symphony Prometheus: A Poem of Fire,
with color part in the score. 1915 NY Phil used Rimington’s Clavier.
• 1920s: Experimental filmmakers such as Hans Richter, Viking Eggeling, Walther Ruttmann and Oskar Fischinger used “musical” processes and/or interpreted music visually.
Fischinger: Motion Painting I (1947)
John Whitney: Arabesque (1968)
Visual objects = “themes” or “instruments” developed like musical motifs
Orchestration of form through visual elements
Counterpoint = 2 or 3 objects on screen at same time, moving independently
“Quasi-metric” recurrence of elements over time
Hans Richter: Visual Counterpoint
Rhythm 21 (1921) - silent
Principle theme is comb-like figure, cut out from paper and filmed one frame at a time
Theme is transformed using musical principles: “modulation,” “transposition,” “sequence”
Movement across screen creates rhythmic patterns
Viking EggelingSymphonie Diagonale (1924)
John Whitney - Arabesque (1975)
• An elaborate application of repeating geometric forms usually found decorating the walls of mosques.
• Accompanied by live performance of Persian santur.
• Whitney adapted technology developed while at Lockheed Aircraft Factory during the war (high-speed missile photography). Able to calculate trajectories and produce finely controlled linear/numerical equivalents to plot graphics and guiding movements on a screen.
• Arabesque demonstrates the principle of "harmonic progression." Applies concepts from musical acoustics – for ex., overtone series - to visual imagery, creating patterns on screen that reflect numeric ratios of musical intervals.
• Psychedelic quality (evolving, blooming color-forms) reflects its date of creation (1975).
Norman McLaren– Loops (1940)
– Blinkity Blank (1955)– Begone Dull Care (1951)
Direct film technique: painting directly on film. scratching and painting on film stock with tight sound and visual synchronization.
Required precise synching of film footage to timing of musical events: 35 millimeter film= 24 frames per second, 16 frames per foot, 1 foot is 2/3rds of a second, calculated.
Resembles constantly morphing modern abstract painting.
Uses “leitmotives”: bass part often with red visual events; piano part echoed by three parallel lines, vertical or horizontal.
Complexity of the visual motifs increases proportionally with the complexity of the musical score.
Animated Film with Music
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