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